The weather was absolutely atrocious. The Dunbar Running Club website described it as "not ideal conditions". This is like describing Holland as "not ideal for skiing" or Sepp Blatter as "not an ideal president of FIFA". The conditions were awful. Standing in the freezing rain at 10am, I was wondering why on earth I was doing this to myself. I don't mind running in inclement weather but there are limits, and I was about to run into the countryside for over an hour. It was really cold and frankly I was dreading it, but (un)fortunately I was surrounded by positivity spouting women. Kata had run at Parkrun that morning and phoned to let me know how she got on, when I told her I was cold and wet and that I didn't want to do this, she basically told me to shut up and man up. Then Rachel who was sitting next to me (and drove me there - thanks, Rachel) said "look on the bright side, at least it's not a Munro". Surrounded by all this sickening positivity I was forced to move my bum to the start line.
Before starting though, I considered what gear was best for this race in this weather. I decided against long sleeves as I thought I was going to get wet anyway and having wet arms is preferable to having wet sleeves. Shoes was the big decision. Conventional wisdom was trail shoes and so I laced them up and made my way to the start. On my way I spoke with Eilis (from HBT) who advised against the trail shoes. She thought that they'd be slippy on the tarmac and I agreed with her. I deferred to her experience and changed to my road shoes. This turned out to be a big, big, mistake! That said, Eilis was wearing road shoes and won the race - first woman by over a minute. Impressive in itself and even more so considering the handicap of her shoes.
By the time we started the race with my cap the only concession to the conditions, the blobs of freezing rain had turned into freezing smir. Not quite fog, not quite rain. We got all kinds of rain during the race but I stopped noticing pretty quickly. Once your clothes are saturated, you can't get any wetter.
It started fine and we ran through Dunbar before turning off the pavements onto a trail following the railway line. At the end of this section of trail and about 2 miles into the course was a staircase. This staircase and my poor choice of footwear was to be my undoing. As I pegged it down the staircase, I could hear the runner behind me and he seemed to be faster than me, so I ran full tilt. Reaching the bottom of the stairs at full speed, I made a sharp, ninety degree, right hand turn in the thick mud. Physics took over and I was on the ground before I even had time to shout, "aaaarrrgghhh". On the bright side, it was rather thick mud so it didn't hurt as much as it could have. I landed right on top of my right arm. Damage was done to my shoulder, wrist and I cut my forearm very slightly. I was more angry than anything else, and obviously considered quitting. Then I remembered the story of the guy that got struck by lightning mid-race, continued, and finished 3rd so I thought my little cut and slightly bruised arm didn't constitute a reason to quit. I dusted myself off, waited for the runners around me to clear, and rejoined the race.
Struck by lightning, finished 3rd.
Slipped, finished 36th.
Conditions underfoot never improved. I tried my best at first to avoid puddles, but soon it become pointless and impossible. Running up the hill, we were forced to run through and along a stream that was now there in place of what is normally the path. On the way back down, ran along the stream again. For some reason Kata likes running in wet feet - she'd have LOVED this then! Downhill was nearly impossible to run due to my shoes. I was passed easily by two runners who clearly had a lot more grip than I did and there was nothing I could do about it. Eilis said to me after the race, "sorry, you must have been cursing me out there" and at this point, I was. :-D Hey, ho. We take advice but then we take responsibility for our own decisions.
At about 7.5 miles into the race, I was tired, and I was hungry. Then I remembered I had gel in my pocket! I was so happy. I ate the gel and it was good. Just what I needed. I had planned to use the gel at about 5 or 6 miles but I forgot I had it. I am not sure if it really helps but it at least gave me a psychological boost that helped for the final 2.5 miles.
To be fair, they did warn me about the stairs.
I was all alone from about mile 6 all the way to the end. Occasionally I could see runners in the distance or far behind me, but mostly I was running on my own. I gave up on catching the guys that had overtaken me on the downhill, and concentrated on keeping the runners behind me, behind me. At one point near the end I heard a voice almost right behind me and I was to say the least, startled. I almost jumped, assumed I'd been caught and thought, "how on Earth did that happen?". Fortunately it turned out to be a wee boy on a bike. I finished the race on my own, about a minute behind the guy in front of me and a minute ahead of the guy behind me.
It was a great race but it's hard to say I 'enjoyed' it. In places it was like running 10 miles at the Battle of the Somme. When you are cold, soaked, and running uphill, I am not sure if you can really enjoy that. In a sense I enjoyed that I was testing myself and achieving something, but the experience itself? Hmmm....not sure. The course was excellently sign posted, well marshalled and the organisation was second to none so kudos to Dunbar Running Club. I hope to run the race again next year and whether it's raining or not, I'll be wearing my trail shoes and advising everyone else to do the same!
