A Grim Sunday..

I had planned to have an easy day on Saturday with the idea that I'd be well rested for the Grim Challenge on Sunday. As it turned out though, Saturday morning was so sunny and pleasant that I went for an 8k with Jenny and Jackson. Nothing too strenuous - just a gentle jog round Hankley Common with a couple of stops to let Jackson mess around in his favorite puddles. And to be honest, I've started to treat races like the Grim Challenge as competitive training runs which are fun to take part in but with too many variables to take too seriously.

Sunday morning was cold and frosty but with clear blue skies and a weak winter sun. The roads were icy though and the race had to be delayed for 30 minutes to allow for the late arrival of a number of runners held up by an accident outside Guildford.

Once underway it was a very slow first couple of miles. With a field of 2000 or so runners there were plenty of bottlenecks until everyone found their pace and spread out a bit. The ground was pretty hard and rutted thanks to the frost and there was plenty of ice on the knee deep puddles that were in abundance throughout the course.

I was running with my ATC 2K mini video camera and managed to get some footage of the course as I ran round. I'll edit it together and stick a link on here when I get round to it. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BLFRn_88hjA

I finished the race in1hr 18 which was about one and a half minutes slower than last year but it's difficult to compare times, not least because the course had been changed slightly. But I was quite pleased with the result and came 775th out of 1900 - so not bad...