Mud after the party!

Oh dear what can the matter be?! The relentless rain is causing havoc!  Not least with the poor people further down the country in places such as Northampton & Devon.  The horrors of what the floods have caused portrayed on the news make our moans about running in wet conditions pale into insignificance.  My heart goes out to them. However, last weekends downpours made for terrible conditions at the first of the season's cross country races hosted by Ackworth Runners within the grounds of Fitzwilliam Park.Trawling through flooded roads to get there gave us an insight into what the running conditions were going to be like. It had, thankfully, ceased raining by the end of our hour long journey to reach Fitzwilliam.

People were seemingly undeterred by the weather, the queue for registration was very long and continued to get longer behind us. The wind whipped around our legs as we patiently waited to hand over our entry fee. Were we really standing in a queue to pay to be subjected to these adverse conditions?  Doubts began to surface as I yawned for about the hundredth time, having been out partying the night before at an 18th Birthday party, sleep had evaded me for the most part.  I had also done something I have not done a very, very long time, which is consume copious amounts of alcohol knowing I was going to do a race the following morning.  I had taken the fact that the race start wasn't until 11 am to be confirmation that I should be ok by that time, paying no attention to the fact that club members had agreed to meet at 9am to care share and travel over.

Thankfully club mate Dawn had expressed a wish to run a really steady race since she has been injured on and off of late.  I took the opportunity to keep her company, providing me with the perfect antidote to my 'hangover'.  Despite the most boggy, muddy and wet conditions I have ever had the pleasure to encounter during a run (beaten only by the conditions of the Three Peaks in July), we really enjoyed ourselves once our feet were well and truly soaked.  The initiation ceremony is always met with screams of fear, maybe we think our feet will fall off if they get wet! Wearing my new trail shoes for the first time caused me to shriek even more as the lovely pink decor and laces disappeared under the cover of mud!

Before.............

After....

Hope of ever getting those socks back to some form of white seem very remote! As Christmas is well and truly looming I think maybe I'll put that old favourite 'socks' at the top of my list!