Muddy good fun...

With 78 days to go before the London Marathon (arghhh), here's a little update about what I've been doing over the winter. To summarize, it's pretty much the same as the rest of the year but with a greater proportion of time spent wearing head-to-toe mud or a silly costume.

Running around in silly outfits is genetic

In my opinion, this time (for those of us who divide our year into spring marathon/ autumn marathon/ other) is an excellent opportunity to have a little more fun with running. For me, this has involved; winning a race dressed as Mrs Santa, doing a long run in a 'Mountain Forest' (Worst. DOMS, ever) and getting extremely muddy.

The camouflage method worked quite well

Mainly, I like to do a bit of cross country to show off my other talents. By this I mean my ability to end up muddier than everyone else. (As proof, I offer you a picture of me at the Midlands Cross Country; an earlier edition where I decided to add a triathlon element by diving head first into a bog).  My friends and family actually keep a special towel in the car for me to sit on post run. It's lucky that I have this talent going for me, because I'm not sure I have my cross country running ability.

I've realized over the years, I'm not really made for running on dirt. I feel a bit like Bambi...wearing ice skates. Whilst other people seem to skim across the mud, I seem to slip and slide my way along with odd facial expressions and frequent unladylike language... However, whilst I assume it wasn't pretty to watch (pictures of me where I seem to be imitating a windmill suggest this is true), there were a few races that I was quite pleased with. 

Regaining my Northamptonshire Country title, after a few years as a Surrey-dweller, was a definite highlight. A friend did comment after seeing me fall over twice whilst walking the course that he wasn't entirely sure how I even managed to stay upright. I proceeded to explain my interval method, which involves stopping to wade through a particularly muddy patch and then legging it to the next one...

Probably the cleanest I've ever been in a cross country race...

Last weekend, I came 7th at the Midland Championships. This was a great day out; partly because I managed to stay relatively dry and mostly because the MCAA did an excellent job of putting on a great race after the original location was flooded (they'd have needed a coastguard if I'd have done that one).

I have to say I was fairly pleased with the result on a tough course. I actually didn't feel great at all (a fact that was later explained by a blood test, which showed my iron levels are low). However, I am definitely looking forward to having my feet on some more solid ground. Although, if there are any muddy puddles on the streets of London, I'll probably find them...

via GIPHY