LE down to Belper to run the Belper Rugby Rover. My Marathon 26

So I was excited to be doing this run. A good opportunity to be running on some lovely unfamiliar hills tucked way further south in Derbyshire. Also the weather forecast again was due to be good. Too good?

It was, more importantly, also a chance to catch up with the Smiths over the standard: Pizza, Beers, Pie and Cream! Trouble is the family had a weird vomiting bug thing in the run up and whilst I had got away scot free, the appetite the day before was plummeting and the indigestion and queesiness was intensifying. Oh dear. I had organised with the Race Director to pick up my number the night before so I didn't have to register on the day and he kindly met me at the start, but by this point I was wearing my down jacket! I left the car at the start, so it was there at the finish and got a lift home with Ben. Sat round the table, I was intermittently shivering, managed to pick at the odd bit of Pizza and managed 3/4 of a small bottle of beer. The Apple Pie went untouched (well by me) so I knew it was going to be interesting.

Following shivering to sweating to shivering all night, breakfast was much of the same and even water was a challenge, but I managed enough to have my second load of paracetamols. Still the sun was shining, it was warm, I was in good company and Ben was even reasonably confident on the route up to Belper. So we set off.

We had a beautiful run in over the quiet back hills on route down to the A6 and arrived in good time for the start and added a small loop up to Belper North Mills and back to make up the distance. At the car and changing the shoes before the run proper I noticed that Ben was hardly sweating and I was drenched and still struggling to drink, still I felt reasonably good thanks to the paracetamols and the general excitement of the start of a race so I headed off down to the start, sipping all the time.

Its an odd start to this race and I couldn't figure it out as instead of heading into the meadow or out on to a footpath we started in a trading estate running along a road straight up to a roundabout and back again to the start. Then we peeled off down to a narrow bridge crossing the river and the first of about 5 bottleneck gates.. Ah! I see. So basically if you're being competitive in this race you have to give it beans from the start to not get delayed in the gates. So this route gently winds its way up through open fields of the first climb and then descends through the woods which is all great trail running before turning onto the road and undulating slowly on route up to the midway mark at Alport Height. Halfway through this climb I think I started to hallucinate as I don't seem to have much recollection of the run other than really struggling to process the terrain quickly enough to come down hill at any reasonable speed and being really angry at having to slow down. Oh yeah and then on the last section up to Alport Height, the most exposed section of the course, getting soaked by a passing squall! Brilliant I was now freezing as well. I also spent rather too long trying to work out how many calories there were in 4 paracetamol.

Still from that point on it is downhill all the way barr a short uphill section in Shining Cliff Woods. It was cold in the forest and from my hazy recollection I walked most of it occasionally looking left or right for a nice place to have a sit or lie down. It was a strong urge but I was able to fight it until I popped out of the woods for the last checkpoint at the Holly Lane crossing. Here the course bursts out into the sunshine and tucked in under a marshal's car on the grass triangular junction I found a small suntrap to lie down on and try to warm up. Ben, earlier had asked me whether I intended to finish regardless of feeling rubbish. When I said I did Ben said that I could always give him a shout later on and he would come up and run the last section with me. Prior to having a snooze in the sun, I called Ben and whilst he came up I fell asleep waiting. On arriving the race organiser also came up to pick up a lad who had hurt his ankle. It was a good opportunity to thank him for helping me last night and to chat about the challenge. On having something as consistent as this the hard part is not the running but everything else that takes place through the week and in the evenings and then running on top of it. So regardless of how tired, or in today's case ill, I really appreciate the opportunity to be out running(well sometimes walking) enjoying the scenery in quietness, tranquility even, and where temporarily I can focus on one thing even if it is a challenge. The wife makes this possible. Supportive even when she is knackered. Thanks Dear, today was hard I would have happily swapped places! And I dont say that readily.

Shoe Choice: First 12k in Nike Icarus Stealth then swapped for 30k in Freet 5.1 Muddy
Stats. Distance: 42.2 km  Elevation: 0.70 km  Total Dist: ?? km  Total Elevation: ?? km