There was no magnificent sunrise to greet Sunday morning, rather the sun stealthily lit up a weak and watery sky. I had resorted to listening to music, something I never normally do, to keep me going. However, it wasn’t John Lennon’s ‘Whatever gets you through the Night’ but Klut’s Asham with which I welcomed the new day.
This was my third attempt as a solo runner at the Leeds Endure 24 hour trail race. Although I felt flat at the start of the race I settled in well as the field set off on the first 5 mile loop around Bramham Park
Everything was going well and by midnight I was slightly ahead of my schedule to run 20 laps over the 24 hours. Then suddenly it all unraveled as a planned 20 minute break suddenly turned into an hour, then 2 hours. I was cold, wet and tired and my sleeping bag was so inviting. however as the rain started once again I got back out on the course. I was going to miss my target but couldn’t just give up and finished on 13 laps, placing me 153 out of 261 in the mens race
My sister Catherine was also running solo for the third time and put in a mighty eleven laps, despite being unable to do any real training.
For celebrity spotters Comedian Ross Noble clocked up 13 laps, also.
Meanwhile at the front end Jordan Withers won the men’s race with 24 laps in 23.49.39 while for the women, Rachel Williams also completed 24 laps in 24.52.50
I would like to thank the support team of Anita, Francesca and Ross who looked after Catherine and I and got us through the night.
As usual a few lessons learned and already planning a strategy for next year.
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