Have to say I was a bit nervous about this race, given my runs over the last few months have been just awful and Ive just wanted them over. However, today I was determined to just enjoy it and not worry about my time. I haven't done Sandringham before, but was told what a beautiful route it is, and it certainly didn't disappoint. It was a bit cold to start and it had rained over night, so I decided on trail shoes, which were definately the right choice.
The pleasant surprise was no heavy legs and although my time was still much slower than my normal pace, I didnt feel so exhausted after the first couple of kms. Been taking some Korean ginseng which seems to be slightly helping the daily fatigue.
Lovely route, really nice mixture of trail, through the woods and some paths round the grounds. When we ran past Sandringham House, a lot of people stopped to take pictures and because the flag was flying, we didn't know if that meant some royals were there or not, ( looking at google afterwards it appears the flag is flown when the royals are NOT there unfortunately).
Didnt take any water with me, thought if I needed it, I would take half a cup of water from the drink station at halfway and have a couple of sips. That's what I tried to do, but actually most of it went all over me, which was quite funny π, and even more so, when I looked around and saw everyone else also either missing their mouth or just attempting to drink and accepting that most of it wouldn't reach their mouth!! They also had a couple plates of jelly beans so did take a couple of beans for the last couple of kms.
I always find ithat as soon as I can see the finish line I get an amazing boost of energy, and so I just went for it over the last 100metres. Finishing time 58.47, not my quickest at all, but, I enjoyed it today and that was more important!π