A test of endurance not speed, It’s been a while running over a marathon distance and off little training for a few months and just building confidence.
Race registration was busy and a mix of 33 miles and a 20 mile racers. I met a few local runners from my village and locally so it was nice to know I hadn’t travelled too far. I also had company with Kirsteen who my coach also looks after and she was coming back from injury and me from illness. We decided as self navigational and a ” Training Run” that we would run together and if she could hang on with me we would finish together. That’s exactly what happened and we started to move through the field in the latter stages.
Challenging course, terrain was ” hit and miss” with sometimes wishing I had trail shoes and very slippery. At a few points we were under electric fences, on canal’s, through woods, non marked walking routes, fields and chalky climbs. We picked our game up the last few miles chasing down some men that raced ahead and also where the loop then meets the 20 milers. Seeing people walk motivated us to keep moving and knowing the last few miles were much flatter. We crossed the line together, both pleased we achieved our intention, although I was awarded first I had crossed slightly a second earlier but happy to have shared the win. Although I could have pushed on in parts I saw no purpose to run too hard with the Comrades coming up in a month and also running solo which I do 90% of the time.
