I had a bad experience at MF in '09 which resulted in my damaging my ankle and being out for most of '10, leaving me fat and demotivated. I'm still a bit fat and demotivated but at least I'm running better now, though I have a problem with slippy downhills and my stud-less Walshes don't help me at all and I'm only running in them out of a misguided sense of loyalty :-)
So.. those are the excuses posted; actually Mortimer Forest '11 was a good run. Tough as ever. The first real climb is a hands& knees scramble up a muddy bank, if you don't get well up the field it's very slow progress. That is then followed by a lot of trail running which was quite muddy in places. There is a sequence of small hills near the water facility which were not a lot of fun for the weak & feeble rubbish slidey man. I was running very well on climbs, but once on the slippery stuff all bets were off and I reckon it cost me about 10 minutes. The 2nd climb was tough as usual and by High Vinalls there were lots of hands on knees. Saw my friend Colin hiding from the elements in the trees with a camera; in any other circumstances this is slightly deviant behaviour but Colin laughs in the face of convention and anyway he would have been freezin' up there. One tortuous descent through the trees later and I was on the road home but feeling not a little disappointed that I hadn't done myself justice. But on reflection I finished in good order with no aches and pains at all so I feel I've gained revenge on this tough race. What's next? new shoe investment, for sure. Thx to Al Tye for the lovely pic :-)
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