We woke up this morning to torrential rain and I was almost hoping that it would be cancelled! But I know now from experience that runners are made of tough stuff and knew it wouldn’t be.
So, after trying to catch up on some sleep from a long day yesterday, we bundled into the car and hoped what we were wearing would be adequate enough (although Katnap was going for the semi-skinny dipping look). I was more worried about getting too cold more than anything as I love getting muddy!
The Green Leek Run has a fantastic ethos - they are basically raising funds for two schools and the run is between them, more or less. They laugh in the face of Summer Fairs and bake sales! What’s more, they can call on David Moorcroft as a marshall as he’s a local lad!
So we got the pre-booked bus from the car park at the finish to get to the start and everyone on there looked a bit nervous. We huddled down in the school hall until it was time to warm-up, then it was a short walk to the start to cool down again as we waited 20 minutes to get going. A few people huddled under the bridge (the first 4km is on an old railway line) to keep out the downpour but it was a bit futile tbh.
David Moorcroft started us off and away we squelched. The first 4km was all downhill on paths and I thought, ‘ooh, this is good’. Then we got to the park and the mud started...
There was more mud and puddles in the next 6.5km than in your average very Tough Mudder. Not only that, after going downhill for so long, the next 6.5km was obviously up. I’m very glad I had my trail shoes on as my beloved Brooks would have been ruined.
Muddy field after muddy field we squelched along, passing through kissing gates, ordinary gates and bewildered sheep. I ended up just running through the puddles as it was a bit pointless avoiding them. It felt like it was never going to end but...’Hark! I hear horns!’ I love a good brass band (luckily as the kittens play in them) and lo and behold Royal Spa Brass were standing by the entrance to the final push. That really helped as most of the energy had been sucked out of my legs by this time.
Around the golf course we went for another km or so and I saw the finish at the bottom of the hill. Everyone in front of me was going quite slowly, so there was a challenge: I went into Bomber mode and overtook 3 other runners as I raced towards the line, to be met by the inimitable David Moorcroft again who greeted all the runners with a lovely smile and handed me my medal.
Katnap was way faster than me and met me at the end (which was lovely as we usually miss each other and I spend ages looking for him!). We shared very nice cakes and biscuits (made by the parents and children at the schools) and a banana before attempting to make ourselves clean enough to get in the car. Thankfully home wasn’t too far away for a very nice, warm cup of tea and a badly needed shower.
The Vasty Fields of France
Brighton virtual 10k aka “BM10k [TheEdit]” run report
10 miles of "Timid not Tough" or how I avoided the "Puddle of Doom"
Apley Estate Autumn Challenge: Post run report