I decided to run this race due to karma, huge karma. I decided on the previous Monday to read 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens, and then this race rears its head, and just to confirm this, we ended up sitting watching A Muppet Christmas Carol the night before the race, great innit.
Up bright and early for what is definitely my last race of the year and it was cold, damn cold, mind numbingly cold. I had my usual banana, eat some cereal and then we hit the road. Neither Bren or myself had ever been to Holly before either, but I had heard that it was a cool little town, so I was looking forward to it.
When we got near the start, it was bedlam with cars everywhere. I had to go and find where to pick up my race packet, but it wasn't too difficult as everyone seemed to be heading to the local middle school gymnasium. I was glad that I had decided to get wrapped up for this as it really was damn cold. Packet pickup involved going and finding what my bib number was on a board and then going and getting my stuff. The free shirt was a grey tech shirt with a custom logo on it, with what seems like scratch mitts on the arms, just like you give babies, probably due to the extreme bloody cold. Now all we had to do was walk around a bit and grab some free stuff and wait for the start.
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Cool tech shirt, with unusual fold down ends on the
sleeves, much like baby scratch mitts. Too tight... |
After a few minutes they called the 5k to the start, with the 10k starting 5 minutes after, so we headed out. The race marshall warned everyone that it was a little slippy out on the course, for a couple of miles so today wasn't going to be the day to shoot for a new PR, which I had already decided was going to be my plan. I was still getting over my failing to beat my PR in the Plymouth race by as much as I should have.
I can't stress just how mind numbingly cold, but still, that it was. I just wanted to get moving, just to get heat into my body, and shortly after the 5k, we did. I felt good and decided that I would see what conditions were like before heeding the race Marshall's advice, after all, this was my last race of the year. Admittedly, there were some dodgy moments but as long as you could find a car track to run along, you were in pretty good shape. The town is very picturesque and nice to run through with many good photo opportunities, but I was too focused for any of that nonsense.
I felt really comfortable and kept a very close eye on my pace, knowing that I wanted to maintain a solid 8:36 mile pace.
Jeez, this post has taken waay too long to complete, just want to get the bloody thing done.
I came in at 53:02, almost 1:40 ahead of my PR, very cold and very chuffed.
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| Normal sleeve |
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| Sleeve folded down to keeps hands warm |
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