Me and Denzil at the finish
I think yesterday was just one of those days that didn’t quite go to plan, in fact the month has felt a bit that way. I think a heavy cold for the past 2 weeks has made me feel this way on top of a busy workload. Anyhow feeling almost better three days ago I entered Denzil’s Sunrise to Sunset challenge, mainly to fulfil my craving to complete a marathon in December especially after missing the one in Sale which I had been looking forward to, due to my cold. I always like to see Denzil and run his events.
I’ve got a reputation with Denzil for always being late to his events and even though the start time was 8:20am I was determined not to be late. Sadly 10 miles following a slow tanker along the A49 put pay to that and I got to Shewsbury Leisure Centre with only 4 minutes to spare. It was a swift change in the car park and run to the start to collect my race number, which ended up folded in my pocket for the duration of the race, shush don’t tell the race director!
The course was loops of a 1000 metre cycle track, as many you can do between sunrise and sunset or you can stop at half or full marathon distance. Obviously, I was planning on marathon distance. I wasn’t bother about my time but wanted to use the day to say hello to anyone I knew, great to see Patrick and Kay and of course get a bit of abuse from Denzil each lap.
At the end of each lap you have to get a card punched to keep count of your laps. As I set off on my 7th lap I felt my right hamstring pull. Maybe I should have pulled out but after the month I have had and the drive down I wasn’t giving up! I soldiered on in discomfort, I’ve been here before so just kept grinding out the laps. After 18 laps a pit stop was required which added quarter of a mile on to the day to get to the very niece toilets in the leisure centre and back to the track. This was definitely not going to be a quick time!
Finally, I got the job done in the mild, calm and at times a damp conditions in roughly 4 hours 9 minutes but who cares today.
Thanks to Denzil and his team from “How Hard Can It Be” events for, as always, a wonderful well organised and friendly event.
Might I add, the speed camera on Warrington Road in Glazebury is working, well at least the flash is!
