Sunday 28 October was a
bright but cold day, just right for running across a 9 mile
multi-terrain route.
I met my fellow striders at the club and was pleased to see that they were all wearing similar trail shoes, at least I made the right decision not to run in my nice new shiny pink asiacs. I told Jill I knew exactly where the vagrants club was, so off we set. We got to Gresty Road and turned into the venue, though it was a bit alarming to see everyone playing footie and not a runner in sight. Said Perry “ I don’t remember this from last year” Doh! I’d only taken them to Alexandra FC training ground. I got the correct directions from a very nice man and off we went, eventually 10 minutes later we arrived at the Vagrants. We gathered the troupes and took our pre race photo, unfortunately we could not find Tom and assumed he was running with his little lad Adam in the fun run.
We all lined up on the
start line and I looked around and saw some of the NSRRA ladies I
normally run against. There were a few runners dressed up and some of
the skeletons, including our
Giles would definitely have frightened the little ones. As the 3, 2, 1,
count started the person next to me asked if I had done the race
before, “no” I replied and she smiled at me and said “ it’s a tough
one”. John Lawton ran it last year and had recommended
that we do it as he said it was great fun.
The
weather was a bit drizzly and cold, but then again I’d just got back
from Bulgaria at midnight and had left 24 degrees. At least we all got
an extra hour in bed. Soon we came to the first
ploughed field, and true to Mike Cutler’s words it was boggy, some
poor lass had lost her shoe and was trying to get it back on as we all
went running past her. My plan was to stick with Paul and aim for a
1.30 finish. I ran with him and Jill for a good
6 miles and saw Paul in the distance along with Perry and Bob. The
route was really good but there was a lot of stiles to climb, which is
great if you have long legs, but hell for little 5’ 3 munchins.
As I
approached the church, I had to watch where I was
putting my feet as I nearly went on my bum because the stones were a
bit slippy. Next thing was the steps leading away from the cemetery, I
decided to run down the side of them. (I’m not daft eh). At the last
mile there were yet more steps, these were slightly
narrower and very slippy so I took my time on them. I recognised some
of the fields we ran through as my old training ground when I was a
South Cheshire Harrier but forgot about the stiles.
The course was
well marshalled and they all shouted encouragement
even though they must have been freezing. Up another set of stairs,
over a motor way bridge and the end was in sight. I looked at my watch
and I was over 1.33. It was great running in to the shouts from my
fellow striders. I finished in 1.34 and got first
Lady Vet 55. It was very muddy and as I didn’t know what to expect I
was really pleased to have finished it in a reasonable time for the
conditions of the day. All the striders did really good times and
little Adam was pleased with himself as he got a prize
for the best dressed crocodile.
Would I do this very muddy
multi-terrain course again – you bet I would.
For more information visit the website.
Liz
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