I was very good last night I was in bed for 10pm and had no problems falling asleep then I was awoken at 12.01 am with the fireworks going off for new year so I sat up in bed opened the curtains watched for a few minutes then plonked back down into my pit. The best thing about a new years day race is the very sociable starting time of 11am, I woke at 8am and was now feeling nervous, this race was always going to be about fun and not actually a race as such just a training run (which I was down for 4.5 miles today on my training plan). Getting ready I realised I was pretty in purple, I had my purple thermal top on, I dug out my purple RFF vest, my socks have always been purple then I realised it was peeing it down! I mean literally the worst rain you could imagine and it was windy. So out came my..you guessed it.. yes purple waterproof jacket. I decided to wear my buff over my ears then slip my baseball cap on top to keep the rain off my face and keeping my ears warm. The only other problem was the jacket has no pockets and neither did my capris - yes I didn't make the same mistake of wearing the knickerless norah fall down nike tights!
I eventually got myself sorted with my Y fumble arm pocket, in that went my waterproof phone cover and in that would be my car key. I was not carrying anything else around with me except two tissues it was simply too wet. All the way there I decided if this wasn't the first race of the year I would have stayed home in the warm, I must be mad! Pulling up at 10.30am I made my way to the registration tent to get my number. Unlike the last time I was there everyone was huddling inside a make shift circus tent type thing that sounded like it was going blow over any minute, there was one desk with two people behind and what looked to be 8 separate lines all merging in a circle in the middle... organized chaos sprang to mind. I eventually got my number, number 100 I quite liked having that number though I have no idea why. The junior race had started at 10.30 supposedly then the senior race at 11am.. by 11am the juniors still hadn't appeared near the finish line, the tent was still almost blowing away, it was cramped, wet, cold and miserable and it was doing my head in. I couldn't wait to get going just to have some space and quiet! At 11.15 am we were told to make our way to the start..all I could think about was the nightmare that was the woods when I last did this course the bit with the vertical climbs that you had to pull yourself up with ropes. Just take it slow Sarah you are not racing you are simply doing.
We were off slipping and sliding everywhere, instantly I found my pacer I decided to stick with her to save me doing something stupid like breaking my leg. I'd managed to move my buff down the back of my neck which was brilliant as it kept the rain and cold out and I was rather snug the only problem the wind was posing was us all trying to stay upright as we were being blown sideways towards the lake at one point. The mud at first didn't bother me it wasn't that hard to run through just cold and wet my trainers soon filled up with the brown water but once it was done it was done I wasn't going to get any wetter than I was at that point as I was already soaked from head to toe... I was now fully in for the ride. I started talking to a lady called Rebecca who had not done the course before, I ended up chatting to a few people who hadn't done the course before and I felt like I couldn't lie to them when they asked if it was hilly.. I'd like to think I helped them by telling them about the woods as after all it was too late they had already started. As I got to the dreaded ropey woods I felt happy and confident, after all I knew what was to come and knew I just had to get on with it. This time I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I did slow right down as did everyone else as you simply couldn't run through the mud I think I added a quarter of a mile onto my garmin just by slipping sideways constantly rather than moving forwards. I'm not going to lie the woods were no easier this time around in fact they were physically harder the rope cut into my hand more as it was wet but mentally I had it covered. I was elated to get back out onto the fields again though.With a stile to tackle I was soon at the drinks station at 2.5 miles going well.
Although I wasn't racing (yeah right of course I was!) I did check my previous course time from July which was 6.25 miles in 1 hour 13 minutes so you basically know from that admission alone I was racing otherwise why would I care about time? Throughout the run I never looked at my time I just always looked at the distance. Miles 3 - 5 were not much to talk about I had taken over my pacer and was off on my own, there was more mud, more rain, rain coming down that hard a drop hit my lip and I half expected to taste blood. We ran past a really stinky field, it smelt like rotten meat eurgh it was vile the only good thing about that part was the field was full of christmas trees I presume growing for next year. I then noticed the course had changed, sneaky sneaky so now I no longer had my back up plan of knowing what was coming next. Suddenly at mile 5.5 I was faced with having to climb over a rather large fence, I don't do climbing. This took me a while to get over as it was high and slippy but I made a friend at this point though I didn't get her name she does triathlons so we were chatting away about that. She left me at 6 miles as were had again gone of the course I knew and was back in some muddy woods, I spent a lot of time tree hugging in this part and cut my hand when I made a bee line for what I thought was a tree branch that was in fact a massive thistle, still at least I was still on my feet and not on my bum!
Taking a quick look at my watch I knew I wasn't going to beat my previous time of 1 hour 13 but that's because they had changed the route, I finished the Dirt Run 10k ( 6.1 miles) at 6.40 miles with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes. Wahhoooo I had finished, god I was cold, god I was wet but it was well worth it just to say I bloody well did it in such awful conditions and I actually enjoyed Dirt Run!
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