See Annie Run by seeannierun

Nerves before a race are normal. This I know.  And today was no exception. I hadn't really contemplated a multi-terrain race until I had read how much fun it'd been for fellow blogger and facebooking fiend, Simone D (lovely to see you today), who announced her registration on the "Over the Hills 12K": which tackled towpaths, river paths, fields & included a river crossing. Sans bridge. 

So - ignoring the "Hills" part of the title, & being in blissful denial that "12K" was actually 7.5 miles (I have't been doing particularly long runs lately) - & ignoring my propensity to fall over and snap m'glass ankles - I signed up. Keen for a new challenge.

Now I've been trying to psych myself out of doing this race for weeks.  But as the lovely L said I'd be a loser if I didn't do it (tough love) & after the fastest runner we know (who works with L) told me to "zip up [your] man-suit & just do it": I knew I HAD to do it. (I also appreciate life's made of new experiences).

Where'm I heading with all this? Oh yes - I was sooooo nervous when we started off - and the announcer chap telling us to "look out for each other out there" further fuelled the adreniline......

I needn't have worried.  I made it round in one piece. Alive. Glass ankles intact after:

Slipping and sliding through some serious mud, slipping and sliding along the riverbank, weaving through muddy patches & cow poo in fields; jumping styles, traversing crossing gates, slipping & sliding up hills, sliding back down them, and gaily skipping (it wasn't just me ) through the most spectacular autumn-leaf-carpeted woodland; & crossing a river thigh deep: then more hills, more beautiful countryside & back to lovely Bradford-On-Avon: all while the autumn sun rained down on us. Glorious soul-uplifting, life-affirming stuff.

[And L had run to B-o-A to meet me at the finish line = 10 miles! Bl**dy Ay.May.Zin n'all]

The thing I love about these smaller races (a whole 301 finishers today) is that it actually feels like you're racing; whichever bunch of people you're with. I was with 2 chaps for most of the race: clinging onto their heels, hitching a lift at the back of their runners chain-gang across the fields: but left them for dead at the river crossing - they tip-toed across cautiously while I bounded across. Nice!

Next stop? The trail shoe shop. Yo yes.  I'll be doing another one of those - fo' sho'!!