Run > Race

Doyen of the Downs. Started at 8.00 in the pouring rain. 180 odd starters, couldn't believe how quickly everyone shot off, I was expecting a lot of plodding, however I hadn't realised you don't really get many "fun" runners in a race like this and everyone is a bit hardcore.Straight away we were right in the back pack and I just panicked, it felt hard and it was only mile 1 , Oh My God, for 2 miles I honestly think I was having an anxiety attack, Adrian kept saying what is the matter with your breathing as i was practically hyperventilating. At about mile 5 we got in a group and started talking to some guys about other Ultras they'd done and I sort of forgot to panic and calmed down and everything started to feel a bit easier. It was then that I lost my shoe in the mud, I carried on running and the trainer stayed put. Luckily someone following me managed with a lot of effort to wrench it out and give it back. It did this again later and then the trainer was hardly even visable so I had to grope around in the muddy puddle for it. Mud was the key feature of this race, not normal mud but thick gooey custard type mud (For those of you that know, Grim without the deep puddles type mud). There were hills too and the mud on these made them as Heather said slippy clay travelators. Miles 5-10 I relaxed into it, the sun came out, the mud stayed and we still hadn't got lost. From mile 10 I started to enjoy the run, everything was feeling good. At one point we lost the route but luckily found some people and they pointed us in the direction of runners they had seen and soon we were back on track. At about mile 17 we had to cross a muddy ploughed field where your feet sunk as deep as your ankle with each step and then at the end it went vertical and with every step you took you'd literally slip back half of it. Getting to the top of this and then stopping to watch Adrian drag himself up I realised he was having (for the first time ever) a much tougher race than me. My legs felt remarkably fresh and I was enjoying every minute. We didn't see anyone ahead of us at one point for about 5 miles but by the time we got into the 20 somethings we started to see people in the distance ahead and my competitive side kicked in, I knew I'd paced it right and had lots left in my legs, so I was like "come on lets pick off these broken runners RAH" Adrian groaned (you can tell him I said that) but to his credit pretty much stuck with me and I always waited if we came to a gate, stile etc, so we spent the last 5 miles picking off runners - what fun. Adrian's garmin had refused to turn on at all and mine conked out after 20 miles so we didn't really know how far we'd got to go as no markers, so when a man said 250m to the finish it was such a surprise - i was still happy, still enjoying it, still chatting and hadn't even had to dig in yet, in fact i was enjoying myself so much I quite wanted to carry on - I even had a sprint finish. 123/4 out of 170ish finishers (I'd have been top 10 if Adrian hadn't been so rubbish . I don't think there are many days when this sort of race happens, it's a race I will remember for a long time. I don't know how I did that but on Sunday I was hardcore!