63 Days To Go - Bungay Wet Dog

Date & Time : 21/02/10 11:00
Distance : 12.5 miles
Total Training Distance (since beginning Sept 09) : 401.5 miles
Route : Bungay 20k 

I was soaked to the skin and freezing cold, my legs felt heavy, I was disorientated and light headed - then I bumped into a friendly face and he pointed me in the direction of the start.  Two minutes later and we were off heading out into the Suffolk countryside.

I didn't think the weather could get any worse - ha, that was a joke.   The persistent rain turned into driving rain, the driving rain turned into hail, the hail turned into sleet and then the sleet turned to snow.  This pattern then repeated itself for the next 2 hours with the wind gradually picking up as the temperature dropped.

Things got quite rough at about 7 miles - the road was on a steady incline for a mile or so, the wind and sleet were blowing straight into my face, my ankles had started to get quite sore and my fingers were frozen numb and I thought "what the hell am I doing here? Is doing the marathon really worth this?".

Anyway I got my head down and drove on.  The next turn took us out of the wind and things started to feel better.  The last few miles were OK, except the last 400m which was a ridiculous steep uphill climb to the finish.  Crossing the finish line in any race is a great feeling, but this one felt particularly good, especially after I discovered the free tomato soup.

Despite the attrocious conditions, very sore ankles and the fact that I was still cold for hours later, I enjoyed the event and was fairly pleased with the time of 1h 51m which worked out at 8m 55s per mile which is the quickest race I have run to date.

I also enjoyed the complementary bottle of Adnams Explorer, courtesy of the event sponsor, highly recommended.