Dawn Day 3
Last night was awful, I couldn’t sleep, my stomach was turning and I felt slightly sick. I was trying to analysis how I was feeling, was I ill or was it something more psychological, like worrying over the effort required to complete this event? I looked at my watch and it was 1:50am and I got up for a little bit and had a drink of water to try and settle my stomach. We have all been given a bucket each to wash our own bottles in, I put it next to my bed just in case the feelings got worse and I couldn’t make the toilet. I lay awake for ages, listening to the rain hammering down on the roof. It would get louder and then quieter as the heavier showers kept passing over. At one put around 2:30am there was even thunder! All this time I kept thinking about the last two horrible rainy days, I desperately didn’t want to run day 3 in the rain. I was dreading the dawn and having to get up to run for 4 hours for a third successive day in the rain.
It eventually came around to 6:30am and time to get up. It felt like I had been awake all night although I’m sure I must have snoozed at some points. While having breakfast and morning physio with Zak the showers kept coming, I really did question why I was here and considered throwing the towel in. I longed to go back to bed and snuggle under a warm dry duvet. Deep down I knew this would be the easy way out and I couldn’t.
I got ready for the start, decided on running leggings in an attempt to keep warmer and we all made our way down to the start. It was actually not raining, how long would this last? I asked myself. It was such a relief to be running in the dry that I set off quicker than the last two days. This also meant I got some company from Rachel, Lee and Paul, who had all left me behind on the first two days.
Surprisingly my tail was up and I made most of the day. The rain held off, there was some wind but I won’t moan about that and we even got to see some sunshine during the second half of the course.
I then got an added bonus, with a surprise visit out on the course from some family, Paul and Jackie (my brother and his wife). It was so nice to get this bit of unexpected support. They waited for me at Ice Cream Mountain and I stopped to enjoy a chat for a couple of minutes. I would have loved to talk for longer but it is a race and the clock was ticking. Also, Lee and Rachel had caught me up, I couldn’t let them win today! It was lovely to also see Aly and Michelle with her banner sharing words of wisdom “Running reminds you that in your weakest moments you are strong”, out on the course and several other 10in10ers.
I thought my Garmin was charged enough but I was wrong and by mile 6 it was warning me of low battery. It eventually died at 18 miles so from then on, I had to pace myself. This wasn’t too much of a problem. Finishing time today was a very respectable 3:51:53. I was so pleased with this and massively relieved as to how well the day had gone after not looking forward to the run in the morning. I suppose it just goes to show that you must give things a go and not give up before you try.
I wonder what tomorrow has in store. I expect some rain will be involved but for now an evening to relax and enjoy a well-earned rest. Hopefully I will get a bit more sleep.
