Thanks to Ruth for the fantastic piccies.
The frustration was getting to me with a 1 month gap in my marathon race itinerary so with only 24 hours to go I contacted the Enigma race director “Foxy” and asked if I could be considered for a place, if there were any last minute drop outs for his race on the 12th December 2012 or 12.12.12, the Dirty Dozen marathon. At first I seemed to be out of luck but then the message came that a place had become available so I accepted immediately, leaving me only an afternoon to taper!
Am I getting addicted to marathon running or was this just so I could get another good long training run in as part of next years 10in10 training? Maybe addiction is too stronger a word but I was definitely missing running one after a couple of weeks. Up to now I’m certainly not getting board with regularly running the distance!
The race started at 9:12am (to get another reference to 12 in there) on a very cold frosty morning. The over night freezing fog had left the branches of all the trees glistening white, which looked very beautiful silhouetted in the bright blue sky.
I wasn’t very bothered about my time as long as I dipped under 3 and a half hours. The course was basically 7 laps of the Caldecotte Lake in Milton Keynes. I met Rik for the first time who is a fellow 10in10er for 2013 and chatted with him for the first 3 laps. I enjoyed talking all things 10in10 with Rik, he made good company which made the miles ticked passed quickly, whilst keeping one eye on the pace to be within my goal. Then at the end of the third lap I had a slightly longer water stop than Rik and he left me behind.
We are allowed to leave food and drinks at the water station which is one good thing about doing a multi lap event. I had brought my own drink, some energy gels and a Twix. I left them a little way from the finish on a bench so I didn’t have to bend to the floor to get them during the race. When I got round on one of my laps and looked for my Twix and it wasn’t there. I quizzed Foxy, thinking he was having a joke but apparently it had been stolen by a bird that had swooped down and whisked it away. I was still suspicious that a joke was being played until on the next lap an energy gel had also gone missing and I got an elaborate story of the bird again and Foxy chasing it trying to retrieve it!
I watched Rik steam on a head, it wasn’t me slowing just him accelerating. One very impressive run, with a massive negative split, well done Rocket Rik! As for me I continued at my usual incredibly even pace and finished in a very pleasing 3 hours 18 minutes 21 seconds.
Me with Enigma Race Director “Foxy” at the finish.
