Frosty Fawkes

Training is back on track after the Bridlington Half marathon.  I had a few aches and pains but as they say 'no pain, no gain'! I feel I am really back in the swing of things and am really enjoying my running at the minute.  It's always a breath of fresh air when the lighter nights come along but this year I feel exactly the same now the darker nights are here since the clocks have gone back an hour. We don't seem to get so much hassle as we run around slightly more anonymously! No doubt as it gets colder and colder I will long for the Summer months to be back with us but for the moment I'm happy!

The Guy Fawkes 10 mile race at Ripley proved to be an extremely cold one, I must learn to assess what to wear beforehand.  Arriving in the beautiful village all shrouded in heavy fog and a severe frost covering everything in sight, I began to shiver at the thought of having to remove my outer layers leaving me scantily clad in my club vest! I comforted myself with thoughts of being able to leave my gloves on, cold hands seem to be my worst enemy and have given me some funny turns over the years!

As us ERR girls tried in vain to warm up before the race we found ourselves at the start line, and a huge throng of people came up behind us - time to assemble for the start then! Stood amongst all the bodies, respite from the cold was short lived as the crowd began to move forward and off we set down the rocky road that is the unmistakeable start of the Guy Fawkes race.  Half a mile in and I began to feel out of sorts, I was extremely cold and finding it difficult to breathe, it was like an icy blast as we ran forward.  Thankfully after about a mile and a half I began to settle into my pace, my toes and arms though, were still numb.  Thank heaven for the gloves.  A short while later I felt much better as signs for Birstwith came into view.  Reminding me of the first hill of the race at around the four mile mark, the 'Birstwith Brute'.  I began to entertain thoughts that today I may well have to walk the hills at some point.

Reaching the top of the first hill I felt a sense of great achievement, it may well be the case that some feel they can walk it quicker but when I turned left at the top it felt like a weight had lifted from my shoulders and off I ran as fast as my legs could carry me! This was also the case after the next two 'named' hills. My efforts reaped me a course pb by a sizeable margin and the satisfaction that I hadn't walked at all, but not a 10 mile pb but that is to be expected on such a hilly course and my Askern 10 pb will take some beating even on the same course!  It's amazing what we'll do for a bit of chocolate, my goodie bag contained 4 Kitkats, 2 Aeros, a Yorkie bar and a Milky bar and with a bottle of water and a technical tee shirt thrown in I'd say we got our just desserts!

A foggy uphill finish!

Attending a bonfire tonight will round off my plot weekend a treat, a recovery run will have to wait until tomorrow!