11 members of the club made their way up to Alton Towers in Staffordshire on Friday evening, staying at a Holiday Inn about 50 minutes from Alton Towers Alton Towers
Arriving at the venue, on the opposite side of the car parks to the theme park we were greeted by more mud than you have ever seen, the registration, changing and club tents area was a complete quagmire. Whilst we were waiting for Tina to collect the numbers we were talking to a couple struggling to get their pushchair through the mud & it turned out to be GB International Liz Yelling!!!
Looking over the course we found the thick mud to be the whole the way round except on the infamously steep hill!! We had heard ambulance sirens earlier and word was going round that three youngsters had broken their legs in earlier races. The St John’s and Alton Towers Health & Safety Officer had apparently wanted to cancel the event but a compromise was reached to shorten the women’s race from 8km to 6km and the men’s race from 12km to 10km, as never in the events 135 year history had it ever been cancelled .
Manged to get in a three miles warm up but shoes were plastered with mud and soaking wet!! At 15.15 we were underway to complete one small 2km lap and 2 large 4km laps. Went off quite hard at the start and was fairly well up there, after about 300m the grass ran out and the mud began, by the end of the first small lap I felt quite exhausted, but we were all in the same boat, so managed to dig in and felt at bit better on the bottom of the course before we hit the big hill. However managed to run all the way up first time round, on the second lap somebody stopped right in front of me on the really steep bit , so I had to re-adjust and walked up the last 5 metres, didn't lose any places as going at the same speed as those who were still running up it. There was a long run from home but remained strong and picked off a couple of runners on the way up to the finish. Final finishing place was 407th. Initally I wanted to be in top 500, but when I saw position I was a little dissapointed for the sake of 8 places I could have been in the 300's, BUT here was the dilemma as I hadn't really eased off for the race as I still have my sights on the bigger picture of the London Marathon in April. After the finish I was absolutely exhausted and cold, had shaky hands trying to take spikes off, didn't do warm down as I couldn't face any more mud. After 30 years running I think these were the muddiest conditions I have ever run in!!!!!
Total Distance: 9 Miles Race Distance: 6 Miles Race Time: 45:54 Race Pace: 7:38 m/m
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