Well, yesterday was the Wivesfield Wobble. A lovely 4.5 mile run through dabbled woods… Ideal for July….. Except this has not been an ideal summer so far so instead of the slightly dusty trails we were wadding through mud, that horrible trainer grabbing mud that means you go home and need to scrub your toenails to get it out !
It was however almost ideal running weather, warm but not too hot, a slight breeze but not blowing a gale… and when it started raining just after I finished it felt quite pleasant.
The start of the run is round a sports field. This was very squelchy with standing water in places and people were slipping all over the place before we got out to the muddy bits. I must admit I really don’t like running round fields in circles but I can see the advantage in starting the race this way because it spreads the field out and avoids the bottlenecks on the narrower parts of the trails. It was always going to be one of those days when you couldn’t avoid the mud. So I didn’t try. Instead of going round it I went straight through it and managed to overtake a few of the more careful people in the process 🙂 I did see a few people lose a trainer or two (glad I double knotted my laces tightly) and I did see a few people slip over, but no lasting damage was done except maybe to pride…
The last race that I ran that was quite this muddy was the Steyning Stinger in March, I ran that race in road shoes…this one I ran in trail shoes and yes, the difference is worth buying them for. I didn’t have that sliding all over the place feeling and was able to run through the mud.
On the last section back round the sports field there were three women in front of me so I increased my pace a bit to overtake them, it is always hard to gauge how fast I can run and keep the same pace going until the finish line ! I overtook the last woman in front with less than 100 yards to the finish, I could here everyone shouting so I knew she was trying to catch me and overtake again but I didn’t look back, I just kept going and crossed the finish line a second before her 🙂 yes, it felt good and for the first time ever got a spot prize, quite useful after this run some shower gel !
It is funny how soon you lose inhibitions when running, when I got back to the car I fished out my black bin bag and stripped off to my underwear in the middle of Wivesfield Green so I could put clean dry clothes on for the drive home.
So, 4.5 very muddy miles in 44:24 and 6 points for the club. Not bad for someone who hated all sports as a teenager and just over two years ago couldn’t run to the corner 🙂
PS the socks started out pale blue…. Not sure they ever will be again !
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