Race - The Beast - 24th Feb 2013

Reserving energy by jogging downhill

 After missing my junction on the M1 I got there only 35mins before the starting gun, which gave me time to register nip to the toilets and pin my number on my chest. Once in my race gear of running t-shirt, running vest over the top, along with swimmers with an outer layer of mountain bike shorts, also a thermal beanie, running socks and trail running shoes. I mention my clothing so that you can imagine how under prepared my outfit was when you know that it was 0 degrees with light dusting of snow in the air. most runners where in log sleeves and running tights, lost had gloves too.

Actually smiling whilst running uphill.

I've had a week off my training, due to a snowboarding holiday, which has left my back, legs and ass bruised and very sore. Oh an my liver has taken quite a beating over the last week too. I usually like to start races from close to the front of the pack so I can try and to keep up with the fast runners. But today I was feeling under prepared and sore so I sat at the back of he pack and waited for the countdown. I kept pace with the slower runners for a about a minute before I decided I needed to run faster, and started cutting my way through the pack.

Very very cold water

The cold was numbing and relentless, I couldn't feel my fingers and my forearms where painful, stiff and distracting. the first water feature on the course was a shin deep ford which was cold, but didn't numb my toes or feet, so I was pretty happy. I kept taking my hat off and stuffing my hands inside to try and bring some warmth to them, it did but was only a temporal relief from the biting cold.

power house in full flow

The next water feature was a chest deep pond to wade through, I desperately kept my hands out of the water for fear of getting them even colder. This was a testicle shrinking, breath snatching, nipple hardening freezing dip, constantly fighting for grip on the slippery mud once out of the water it took a while to get the full feeling back into my feet, and calfs so I went pretty gingerly over next couple of horse hurdles. The following water horse feature had shin deep water again, but was infested with 10mm thick ice plates which bashed the lower legs with icy bruises.

I think I landed this leap.

The following horse hurdles and hills were tough going, but my fitness held out enough for me to calmly maintain good running form up the hills. the hills are steep and hard but I managed to pick up a few more places on the uphill sections which was great, and ran ballistic-ally down the hills to maintain the gains. after the fourth water feature of a short waist deep wade, where a male marshal comically warned me that the leading female runner was only a few places behind me and to hurry up so avoid being 'chicked'. This was the kind of motivation I needed to push on over a few more hurdles and hilly run back to the start line ready to complete a second 5mile lap.

Water so cold I was technically in the
running for fastest woman.

The second lap went strongly and managed to fight to over take another 2 or 3 places and fought even hard to maintain this lead. my hands and forearms never warmed up and were incredible stiff and sore by the end, so stiff I could barley hold by post race goody bag or press the button on my car key fob. I jumped into my warn coat, and gloves and pottered back to the finish line to wait for my mate to catch up and cross the line. we celebrated with a well deserved double lamb burger each, before a short chat and then my drive home to warmth and an afternoon nap.

Thanks to the organisers and marshals for a great event and race
www.thebeastrun.co.uk
www.runner-photos.co.uk

Scores (out of 10)
Course: 7
Terrain: 6
Difficulty: 7
Return factor: 9
Overall: 7.5