Event 11 - Slindon Slog 2019

On Sunday 17th February 2019 myself and a group of the Runpals descended on Slindon for a 10 mile trail run with a bit of mud and water thrown in. Not sure how this seems to happen when generally the British weather can be well....pissy! but the sun always seems to be shining for my challenges :-)

The organisers had provided childcare for the event so with my two girls settled in and happily colouring, playing games and the like I went off to find the pals and prepare (which basically means queue for the loo and talk about to sexy pace or not to sexy pace?!!) Mmmmm you are wondering!

Jon, Matt, Leigh and Conrad said they were going to be running sexy pace and did I want to join them? After a bout of tonsillitis and this being only day 5 of a course of antibiotics to clear said infection I was very happy to hear no one was attempting this run fast....apart from Des of course!

The scenery is stunning for this run. A mix of Slindon pits (the mud and water bit), woods, open countryside and the steps of DOOOOOM! The muddy bit is both at the start and then they drag you through it for the last part of the run which is quite difficult and I have to admit I walked quite a lot of that bit. Much of this event is hilly and its a bit daunting running for a long time downhill only to see runners coming back in your direction and I'm thinking - "you have got to be kidding me, I can't run back up this hill". But you do! and it wasn't too bad. The jellybabies and snack stop at the top of the first hill in the woods was very welcome. 

About 2 miles in, Conrad and I began to realise that the boys' sexy pace wasn't quite our sexy pace so we broke away from the group to bring our heart rates back to something lower than the maximum score in darts. And from that point onwards Conrad and I just seemed to have a really good pace and we stuck together the entire route. I must admit Conrad was pacing me most of the time. The route is quite narrow in most places so its single file and he's just that bit faster than me so I tended to fall in behind him. Our sub 2 hour finish time is therefore more down to him that me, thanks Conrad.

I felt really strong throughout this event I think because I enjoyed it so much. So much tricky terrain to keep your mind focused. My feet and ankles were all over the place so I kept hurting myself a little on tree roots etc but it didn't bother me too much at the time. The other competitors were a friendly bunch and I had quite a few chats with a few of them along the way which made the time pass quickly.

The last mile and a half was a serious slog! I moaned about my foot/ankle/knee/rumbling stomach etc etc (sorry about that Conrad) and then we realised we were taking a bit too long to do the last stretch and the 2 hour time was looming, so we sucked it up and really went for it. I completed the event in approximately 1hr 55 minutes and once over the finish line - wow were my legs in pain. Never had that sort of pain before and didn't know where to put myself! What I didn't realise is that I'd injured my foot and the pain just seemed everywhere. Over the next few days the pain stopped being general and was focused just in my foot - I must had tripped on a few too many tree roots. 

As I sit and write this blog I still have a niggle in the foot and I haven't run at all this week to try and let my body heal. I have everything crossed for tomorrow - its Brighton Half Marathon! The longest distance I've ever run in my life.....please foot, pretty please hold out and let me complete this one.....with a cherry on the top x

PS In case you are wondering about the random leg picture - when I got home, the mud had actually stained my legs which I thought was funny enough to share with you! Like a fake bake gone wrong lol!

And Matt on the exercise machine -  I took that whilst driving out the car park after the event. I couldn't quite believe my eyes. 10 miles clearly wasn't enough for him, nutter!