Week 8 Cont: Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud



First Hill



Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me follow, down to the hollow
And there let me wallow in glorious mud   

          

 

100km! Finally hit the magic ton after a number of years trying. Was a slog but worth it. Quick 8.5km on Friday and 14km on the treadmill Saturday then just a mere 20.2 miles ~ 32.5km on Sunday.

Early drive down to Petersfield on the sunday in the Eros (my car – it’s a VW Eos but renamed for obvious reasons). Beautiful weather to start but the course itself was v hilly (see the profile pic below) and muddy. Had a group of six of us all running out of a total field of almost 500 and also bumped into a girl at the start (hi emma!) who was at school with me and I haven’t seen for 11 years. Everything was waterlogged and muddy so managed one step forward and half a step back – a number of fallers on the way which only added to the entertainment. An excellent run with great refreshments – cake and mars bars bars as well as the more usual jelly babies and water at various points on the course – delicious! Also a well stocked cake table at the finish (see pic) to reward weary runners.  Only downside was the rain which kicked in with about 50mins to go which made things even slippier and muddy. Mud, mud, glorious mud.

I ran most of the way with a friend (hullo ted!) and finished in a respectable 3hrs 11min. In our group Dave ran a fantastic race coming in 13^th with a time of 2hrs 39.  I was also put to shame by Emma from my school days who kicked considerable ass to win the girls competition. Finished off with a warming pub lunch and then an anxious hour or so waiting for the final member of the party who was sick on the way round, v slow and then couldn’t get his car out of the car park due mud – bad day at the office that.

V satisfying week – legs feeling in good shape considering. Lets see how they do this coming week.  One more week of running then off to the Austria for some high altitude training (skiing for a week…)

KM Ran

Week 8 total 100km  (plan 100km)   Boom!
Week 8 Plan 70km

Cakes!

Muddy foot!

Ted Looking v relaxed!

Mud!



Hills!