Hereward - 75% there!

In more ways than one.

Poor Simon, who only stepped in at the last moment to cover for Andrew, was laid low with some nasty bug overnight and couldn't run. But the three of us remaining (me, Rosie, Rob) decided to go for it anyway - we were already up, ready to go at 6am, what else were we going to do?

Also this race gave me a chance to run leg 3 of 4, so the master plan to do all the way from Peterborough to Ely is 75% complete.

The weather was, er, changeable. We started the journey in snow, following yesterday's flurry and overnight freeze. South of Attleborough the snow faded away, and the north of Huntingdon, it started to rain. At Peterborough it turned into icy drizzle, and Rosie and I left the multi-layered Rob to warm up and start the race while we navigated to March.

By March the icy drizzle was turning to sleet. After a pit stop in the stinky leisure centre (sorry, but it was) we waited out on the playing field, where it intensified to hail. Ow.

Rob came in in about 47 minutes (results TBC), and Rosie set off. Once we'd convinced the car to start, the hail had turned to fluffy snow, and was settling on the road. Negotiating a roundabout on the way out almost got interesting, and the journey to Whittlesey was conducted at 35mph with not much of the famous wide-open fenland views on display. However, as we sat and waited in the car park, it cleared a bit, although by now there was half an inch or more of snow/slush underfoot.

Turns out we waited a bit too long, as upon sauntering over to the changeover I was met by the already-arrived Rosie. No warm up for me, just time to throw her my fleece and set off. That was OK - plenty of time to warm up en route really. Having had Rob and Rosie running ahead of me, I was up with the faster teams, and I reckon I was overtaken by at least 20-25 people over the nearly-11 miles. That was slightly depressing, but I just had to knuckle down and run my own race. However, everybody was friendly and encouraging, in a shared "why do we do this??" kind of way. I reckon it was almost 50% on hard or compacted surfaces (with snow) and the rest on mud and field margins (with snow). Next year I need trail shoes, as over some parts I barely had traction.

It wasn't the greatest run - starting off-road took more out of me than I thought, and by the time I hit the farm tracks around 6k I was already getting tired, but picked up a bit on the harder surface. The field edges about halfway really took it out of me, but my attempt at refuelling with jelly babies led to ickiness and stitch so I abandoned that. Just before 12k I gave in and pit-stopped behind some trees (the best cover available), but ran better after that, although found the rough tractor tyre tracks hard going. Finally at 13k we hit the road for the last time, but I didn't feel I had much left, despite the lovely encouragement from everyone passing. I'll even forgive the guy who said "last km" with a mile left. At 17.6km the village hall hove into view and I was extremely glad to see it (even just staved off the last potential overtaker).

However, I did have the best weather. It was clear all the way, great views over the monochrome fens (with wind turbines) into threatening clouds in the distance. Just as I rounded the penultimate corner, the sun came out. However, I was warm all the way. Thank goodness I hadn't gone with the stupid idea of wearing my waterproof! I set off in long tights, long sleeves, club vest, headband, one buff on my head and another around my neck, and gloves. By 1 mile, the gloves were off. Another half mile, and the neck-buff was off. Half a mile more and I rolled up my sleeves. Towards 3 miles I pushed back the head-buff a bit. At that point I hit equilibrium, thankfully. But I was lucky to avoid snow, sleet, hail, rain, and anything else the clouds had dumped on Rob and Rosie. Just as well, as I had about 1h45 to enjoy it. No doubt my split will be even worse, as I have the time Rosie waited at March to add! But 1:45 would give a mile average of 9:37, which given the terrain and the stop is not too bad really.

At that, we called it a day. Rob had toyed with the idea of also running stage 4, but it was not to be. Probably for the best! We tried the local Welney pub, but it was full, so we came home via te Angel at Larling, and rounded off the day rather well.