I woke after a sleepless night at 5am, half by the birds singing in the garden and half by an increasing feeling of anxiety. Tried to eat porridge, but not really up for it, so threw most of it out. Big mistake.
Packed bag with a makeshift emergency kit: waterproof trousers (thanks Catherine), waterproof jacket, hat, gloves, compass (thanks Chris), whistle (thanks pound shop), map sellotaped into a plastic wallet in case of rain, emergency food, water. All the talk of 'emergency' is not helping my nerves. What's going to happen?!
Off to meet Chris who is also running the race. Studied map on train. Some of my anxiety lessens as I read the text in bold at the top of the map which says 'the route is well flagged'. How did I miss that before?! Maybe my map reading skills (lack of) won't be so much of an issue after all! Hurrah, the day is looking up.
Get to Hebden Bridge. Beautiful place! The start is 1.4 miles away in Heptonstall, all uphill. Good warm up. So pretty here and it's all misty. Very atmospheric.
Registration is in a pub. Start as you mean to go as they say. And it's only £6 to enter the race - bargain! Am now hungry, so eat some Belvita breakfast biscuits and half a banana because the other half got squashed (breakfast is a DISASTER today!), and have some tea. Then I need a wee, of course. In the queue for the loo, people are saying things like "well, I'm not sure how this will go, but at least it's only a category B race, not an A. If it was an A I'd be really worried" and "after that point after checkpoint 4 at the...'insert several rapidly proclaimed strange sounding place names'...you want to keep left because if you keep to the right down the tree line by the field boundary you'll end up knee deep in a bog". I have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Apart from the bog. Which sounds ominous.
Here's the route:
The start of the race was really one of my favourites! The village vicar came to start the race, and he did a tiny short sermon about a reading from the Gospel of John, or Luke, I think, about water and Jesus giving the water and it would give eternal life and you would never feel thirsty. Then he said, there is a water station at 11 miles, and said a prayer that we would all stay safe and make it to the water station :-)
And then it began. I have honestly never in all my life run a race this tough! I will start on a positive though - because it was beautiful route with some views that were so stunning it could make your heart ache for the natural beauty of the world.
Quite soon after that though everything else began to ache, as the reality of running around this scenery sunk in. Here are my mile by mile highlights:
Mile 1: Nice downhill to start and some people commented on my Chapel A running top, nice to feel part of a group again :-) Then a big uphill scramble. Everyone stops running and walks/ crawls up the hill.
Mile 2: Headache starts and I've forgotten my tablets :-( The bog starts. I start falling over. I fell over 7 times in the race, or was it 8. I don't remember now. Just that I seemed to spend a lot of time on the floor. The first time was a couple of miles in when I misjudged the length of a particularly boggy section, and slid back into it. To be honest, I was so tired from focusing so hard on where to put my feet for the last mile of bog, it was quite a relief to lie down for a moment, even if it was face down in a bog. You have to take your rest where you can get it. I remember feeling quite cross after that. And stayed cross for the rest of the time, and it got worse after each time I fell. By the end I was in a rage. My Mum says this makes me like my Dad, who gets very cross when out walking if the going underfoot is not favourable.
Mile 3: The navigation section turned out to be really straightforward, really because I could see where we were heading to from a long way away, and there was a long line of runners to follow. In fact, navigation wasn't a problem at all, it was well marked and there was always someone ahead.The only issue I had was later in the race, when there was no one ahead. Approaching a pair of helpful walkers they called out "all the others have gone that way, they said were lost, but they all went that way anyway". It was the wrong way, and I and three other people who were following me (foolish!) ended up running on the wrong side of the river, much map consulting and debate ensued as to our location, and eventually we ran back up (an extra up!) the hill to where we came from, and off in exactly the opposite direction to what I had thought was right. Sorry everyone.
Mile 4: I saw an ice cream van parked at the bottom of a very steep hill. Hurrah! Oh no wait, its the Mountain Rescue truck.
Mile 5: Running behind a group of men. A couple of them were wearing the same running club tops and looked to be friends. We had just gone along a little road and over a couple of stiles back into the fields. Looked boggy again. Big muddy puddle just after the stile. One of the pair jumped in, and sank up to his WAIST in the bog - I promise I'm not exaggerating! His friend laughed, and jumped up onto the dry stone wall next to the bog and ran along it, overtaking his friend. I followed him.
Mile 6: Can't remember that much about this section. We were up high so the views were lovely. I was waiting for checkpoint 3 to arrive because I knew that was getting on to half way. I'd been feeling really thirsty and had been putting off getting my water bottle out of my bag for ages, but used an uphill walking section to sort it. Water tastes soooo good when thirsty.
Mile 7: Ran along a dam across a reservoir. Nice and flat and road like. Ahhhhh. Not for long! Back to the hills. I'm wearing too many clothes. Something strange has happened to the weather - it's hot. I've got dressed in the wrong way, need to take off hoody, but it's under my vest, so basically need to strip. I have been looking out for places to hide to do this for a good few miles, and I swear that every time I see somewhere I can hide, someone appears! First it was a race photographer, then a family having a picnic, and now I have just seen a good hiding place by a tree, and the guy who fell in the bog who is just in front of me suddenly stops and starts walking behind me! Argh!
Mile 8: I come across a jelly baby graveyard - several brightly coloured jelly babies lying face down in the mud, drowned. Such a waste! I learn from Chris at the end that these were his. Sad times.
Mile 9: Are we there yet?
Mile 10: The top of a deep gorge, the slides are so muddy and slippery and it is a long way to the river the the bottom. Make it down mostly by lurching between tree branches and holding one for life.
Mile 11: Water stop! A little group of us had gathered. A man giving out water enlightened us that there was "only one more little hill and then the killer at the end". Half way up the "little" hill I could see grown men further up crawling up the top section on their hands and knees. If this was a little hill, I forbade myself to think of what that man meant by "killer", or I would stop dead and go no further. On the plus side, by the time I reached the steep section, an elderly couple walking down the hill shouted out to me that I was "amazing, and to go show those fellas how it's done!". They were so nice, I could have cried.
Mile 12: Shortly after this, I showed everyone just how it's not done, by misjudging the route markers, running through a bog rather than round it, falling into it, and hitting both knees on a wooden walkway that I was supposed to have run along, not into. For a moment, I sat in the bog, cried, swore at the surrounding countryside, and pulled fistfuls of grass out of the ground. Then I realised someone was catching me up behind me, so stopped behaving like a child and exited the bog situation pronto.
Mile 13: Oww. Everything hurts.
Mile 14: Everything hurts more. Surely we are near the end? Where is the end?! "A mile away" said a marshal. Huuray! "You just cross the road, and follow that track" he said.
Mile 15: He omitted to mention that the track was vertical. The Killer Hill had raised its ugly head. It took several minutes to get up it, and all the time I could see other runners at the top and they were literally right above my head it was so steep! Mad. What am I doing here? I kept climbing and climbing, and the top stayed just as far away.
Mile 16 (I think - the route was longer than 15 and I did an extra bit): I saw my parents at the top of the very last hill! I started running so as to try to impress them. They gave very kind words and pushed me (actually pushed me) on to the finish.
The end: Tea and flapjack in the field. Soup and homemade bread back at the pub. Food makes everything better :-)
Proof that I did sit in mud:
And some geek stats: I finished in 3.15.13 and came 11/27 in the ladies (and 162/206 overall).
And well done to Chris who did 2:56:31 in his first ever race!
The end (fake smile of pain):
Hurrah! I am already beginning to forget the pain, and now all my clothes and shoes are washed, I think it wasn't all that bad, and I may do another. Or maybe not :-)
I have hurt the back of my right leg. I ran 6 miles today and it was really sore. I think it is just a pulled muscle, but am quite anxious as only 11 days till the big one! :-S On the advice of Andrew and Catherine, I should have complete rest and hot baths and massage and stretch it. So, I might just do that and go to the gym for a couple of days and see if it helps it.
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