Steyning Stinger Marathon

Oh lordy that was tough! I was up at quarter to six to give me plenty of time for preparation and the sun was just rising into a vivid red sky. Shepherds' warning right?
Anyway headed over to Steyning and set off on the 'mass start' at 8:30. Not that massive in practice as runners had been leaving as and when they felt like it. Well, the first 10 miles or so weren't too bad with just the odd shower and a bit of mud to run through, but once I took the fork into the second half the weather really kicked in. Heavy rain and strong winds lashed into us as we headed over towards Cisbury also the ground underfoot was now less well drainied and properly muddy. Fatigue really kicked in when running straight into a head wind around 'Steep Down' this was about mile 19 and I began to have doubts about completing. Then we rounded the hill and picked up a tailwind and I recovered a bit. Shortly before losing my footing and sliding down the hill on my arse - Still saved a bit of running. Long drag back up to Chanctonbury saw most runners reduced to walkers. Manfully I kept on running, only to watch them all over take me again on the descent through chalkpit woods. I finally finished in 4:28. Bit longer than I'd estimated but then I hadn't anticipated the conditions being so harsh. General opinion was that it was the toughest Stinger they'd held so far. So a good choice for a first marathon!

Edit 24/01/2007 - I notice that if you google 'Steyning Stinger' this blog appears pretty high up in the results, so if you've wandered in because you're thinking of entering then DO IT. It's a great race, I'm down for the marathon again this year. :o)

Brighton Beacon half marathon

1:32:51 - I'm quite pleased with that! I was hoping for under 1:40:00 so beat my own target. Well under last years 1:45:00 odd. :o)

Hurt a bit though, I'm going to have to drop the pace a bit for the full marathon or I'll be walking the last 10 miles.

Kids like mud too

Imi about a mile into yesterday's 5 mile hike. Just before it started raining - Well it's character building isn't it?

Bleh!

My biggest run ever today - almost exactly 20 miles. All off road, all hilly and muddy as hell. Is hell muddy? 'Course not it's just an imaginary place used to frighten catholics. But if it did exist, and I went there I'm sure I'd find it was muddy. Anyway I digress, 20 miles and I don't feel too bad so feeling quite optimistic about the stinger in 3 weeks.

Running season commences...

Well, I've only gone and done it now! Put my name down for the Steyning Stinger again but this year I've gone for the full marathon version. Eek! My first marathon and it's going to be a hilly offroad one. Well, I've done plenty of training so I probably won't actually drop dead, but should still priove *interesting*. Oh well, before that I've got the Brighton half marathon to run next weekend which should serve as a nice warm up.

Marin Winter Series - Thetford

Last sunday saw the first round of this series. I've ridden at Thetford many times but not given this race a go so thought it about time. Preparation was not ideal - Jo and I were at Tim's party the night before and didn't crash out until 3:00 am. An early start of 6.00am for the 140 mile drive left me feeling pretty shaky on the start line!
Once we got going though the race was excellent, lots of fine twisty singletrack linked with stretches of fireroad and three bombholes - Real bombholes at thetford t00 :o) I came 18th in the male 4hour solo and Jo 9th. Both pretty good results but you have to wonder how we might have done with better preparation.

Unfortunately this effort left my defences low and the kids' virus that I've been avoiding for the last few days finally got me and I spent most of that night locked in the bathroom. At least I made it home before the symptoms kicked in!

A good day's racing!

At last, at bloody last! After running the Brighton 10K every year since 2002 I've finally managed to break the 40 minute barrier :o) Not sure what the official time will be yet but I ran under the clock at 39:40 and my stopwatch showed 39:28 so the chip time should be something like that. It was pretty painful but I've trained hard this year and it's finally paid off.

After that I headed over to Stanmer to see if I could get there in time to catch the cyclocross race. It was tight but the officials were ace and helped me sign on quick and even pinned my number to my back for me. Made it to the start line just after the GO so had to chase them down and start working my way up through the pack. Course was great, muddy and twisty but not too slippy and with enough roots to keep things interesting. Don't know where I came but I made a decent showing and the ride helped to work out some of the stiffness in my legs from the morning's run. Reckon this is the way to go in future. If only I was a decent swimmer I'd have a crack at a triathlon.



:o)