MoRun: done!

Yesterday saw a number of PBs in my running life:

• my slowest 10k ever
• the worst conditions to run in
• the most fun during a race
• the funkiest medal
• the muddiest I've even been after a run
• first race without my family cheering me on

On arriving at Wollaton Park, this was the scene that greeted me:

Urgh!

At that point I REALLY started to worry for the safety of my beautiful clean and shiny new shoes. Everywhere was soaked through, even the "dry" bag drop had puddles in and it was a case of putting my bag on other bags to try and stop it getting completely soaked. Can I just say here, I don't do dirty. I like nice, clean road running, jumping over the occasional puddle but mostly staying mud-free. I couldn't face the thought of going to a music festival such as Glastonbury because actually living amidst so much mud and not being able to scrub it off just makes me shudder.

Notts Women Runners

Anyway, back to the race. After talking to the lovely ladies in NWR for weeks now I got to at last meet a good chunk of them, and as expected they're fab. I was super nervous going into the race as my family wasn't able to come and watch as my eldest son was poorly, the weather was ghastly and my confidence had been damaged by the GSR leaving me feeling a bit ambivalent. It would've been easy to pull out but I'm no quitter, and when I met the girls I was glad I hadn't. Here we are taking the prospect of the race very seriously!

Mo Sista!

So sporting a rather fetching Mo that would give Mario a run for his money, we set off round Wollaton Park. It was hard enough to start with because we had to run up a steep grassy hill that had become somewhat of a mudslide with all the rain we've had lately. Quite a few of us were grumbling about what lousy conditions it was to run in, but soon we settled into a nice conversational pace and I ran with Sarah and Zoe with whom the laughs were abundant. We realised that to try and run it in a good time was pointless, so settled for just completing the course without breaking a leg! It's at this point I thought trail shoes might have an advantage over my road shoes. After a while it began to feel pointless trying to avoid all the mud and puddles, so I just accepted I was going to get dirty. Zoe, however, went even further and decided to plough straight through all the puddles...I wish I was that brave!

Towards the end of the race we started seeing lots of fake moustaches littering the paths as they'd sweated off and just dropped. I now have visions of all the deer prancing about at night wearing them as they take part in their own MoRun, but then I do have a very strange imagination! They'll probably end up lining rabbit burrows and keep the bunnies nice and warm during the winter. 

Finally, after 2 laps of Wollaton Park and 10km, Zoe, Sarah and I crossed the finished line triumphantly, tired, muddy but in receipt of new bling.

We did it!

Sadly my shoes will never be the same again, but hey, what's wrong with a bit of mud? Besides, the spoils more than make up for it! I'm still not a fan of the mud, but yesterday proved that you can get covered and still have a laugh.

MoRunning 2014