I'm running away with you......

From, yesterday's news
Let's leave it all behind
Help me back, to my mind...

Well, what I really needed, was a run that made me glad I was running.

I got it :-)

Last night I went to do the Moonlight Challenge. A favourite event of mine which consists of a run of 6.55 mile laps (2 miles Tarmac, rest farm tracks). The maximum distance is 5 laps, but it is up to you how many you complete. The previous 2 times I have done all 5. I knew last night would be different.

On Friday night me and Mr H had a few words about it. He had been looking at the forecast and was dead set against us going, with the usual good sense that he is famous for, and I am not.

(feel free to be shocked by that)

In true AJH fashion I sulked for the rest of the evening, and announced that if we didn't go I was going to go out in the dark to the chase and do laps there on my own. Sometimes, even as I hear the words coming out of my mouth I want to slap myself :-/

Anyway, we got up Saturday and Mr Peacemaker said we could compromise. We could go, but if the weather started to close in I would stop at the end of the lap. I agreed, that was more than fair :)

So all kitted up with flasks of tea, warm gear and some rock salt (I am not sure if this was so I could run in front of the car and grit the motorway as we travelled, but I said nothing) we set off. We were a bit late really but still got there with 20 minutes to spare before the start and it is so relaxed it didn't matter. Said hi to Mike and picked up my number. Met Eszter (Caesars camp) and Pat from last year and lined up.

First alp passed fine. There was quite a thick covering of ice and it took me a while to get my head torch sussed, but as long as you kept looking down it was fine. I didn't really speak to anyone, I think we were all keen on not going a over t. At the 3 mile station the water was actually slush and I don't like really cold drinks so tbh hard hardly any for the whole thing.

Second lap was uneventful but I was aware of really feeling the cold especially in my legs and I had thermal tights under my compression ones. It was on this lap I decided that in order to be ok for the quad I really ought to consider finishing after 3. I was ok with that it seemed a really sensible thing to do.

I told mr h this at the checkpoint and he said fine, but I mustn't stop if I didn't want to.

So I set off. I am not sure if it was getting colder but I really felt it on this lap and was feeling achy and sore across my shoulders and midriff, I was hunching against the cold and I couldn't relax. I relaxed even less when I met someone coming in the opposite direction who shouldn't have been coming that way.

'have you gone wrong?' I asked him
'I think we've taken a wrong turning somewhere' he replied
'no' I said 'it's you who's going the wrong way, not me!'

And then I ran on because I knew he would meet the organiser just back the way I had come who would put him right. It didn't stop me stressing that it was really me who was wrong, which just shows my navigational confidence :-D

I was right though and when I got to JB corner and 1.5 miles to go I thanked the marshalls there because I knew I needed to finish.

When I got to half a mile to go I rang Mr H, he was very pleased because he had found out about the snow in London that was heading our way and was anxious to leave.

So I signed in for lap 3 and got a certificate and a medal. I protested that I hadn't earned a medal but Mike said anyone who had come out and run any distance in that weather deserved one. You see why I will support his events :)

Anyway, homeward bound and initially it wasn't too bad, but 20 minutes in it went white and suddenly the lanes on the motorway were guesswork and a lorry next to you made you need the toilet real bad :-///. Going on to the A13 was worse and we were very very pleased to get home.

So I ran 19.65 miles. I found out how to use my head torch and supported an event I love.

I even regained some of the brownie points I lost on Friday.

I won.