Tadworth Ten

I am at home and calmed down from the 5.5 hr drive back in the car...

The morning started before dawn at 7 and I had porrige oats with seeds with a great carbs - protien mix, which i have just discovered in the supermarket, a few coffee's and a Viper Extreme Cereal Bar - which is my race day treat/superstition.

The drive was an hour and a half, and when we got there it was a big decision which car park to stay in - ended up driving between the toilets and the start line - where there was only 600 m in between, but we were early and it was -3 or 0 C.

I warmed up, and pretty soon it was time to get to the start line - spoke to someone at the start who said where the hills were and that it had been -7 the year before...!!!

The race started with a hilly downhill over grass, and I had my garmin set for k so for the first 6.5 k i thought - 'they have got these mile markers wrong' ' this must be a 12 or 13 mile race....

it was set for k because of the 400m sprints i have been trying in the taper... and i forgot completely...

I talked with a woman who was running her first run over 8 miles - don't know where she finished... and a woman who was 10 or 15 years older and about 45lbs heavier at least - she finished about 2 mins before me according to my mum.

After the steep grassy downhill there was an on road (deserted lanes) unbelievably long up hill steep and at least a mile and a half, then some curving round and then past some shops then a pond - these were some of the steep corners which were well marshalled and the marshalls did tell us where to look out for traffic and where to avoid Ice which was great marshalling.

Then a long but almost un noticable in all the up hills downward street past some massive houses, through a tiny bit of wood, then back around part of the race course, (to the side)....

then REPEAT: 2 lap course, I don't know when the first people lapped me and as I started near the back i must have been lapped by about 500 ppl. But that was all in the first half of the race it seemed and the last 2 ppl I passed might have been 2nd and 1st last... I don't know yet full results available tomorrow.... had it been completely flat i have no doubt i could have finished in 2 hrs or 2.02 but it was a tough ten miles and therefore my time was i think:



2:07:57 or 58, the first i hope.

It took me about an hour and a half before i was warm again although i hadn't been cold during the race - the marshall seemed to be running disguised as a normal runner with a race number, along side the stragglers, and stopping and waiting for most ppl to catch up... I will be slightly disappointed if i am 3rd last because I did pass some people at times - i just don't know - it's killing me - i know it doesn't matter at all

It was only my 3rd 10 mile run, and the first time i have even done a metre more than that if you count the warm up LOL

My first half marathon is coming up on the first day of Spring!!!