A river runs through it
So just five days until my next 10k in a town called Crowborough. As I don't know the area particularly well I'd thought I'd pop over in the car for a reconnaissance mission and assess the course. I'm now wishing I hadn't. Whereas the Brighton course was flat and up and down the sea front this one is rather hilly. And despite it being just a run, not a triathlon and therefore no swim section it looks like I'm going to be getting wet anyway.
After finding the start of the course (which is in a loop) I followed it round in the direction I'd be running, along a main road by the name of Crowborough Hill. I couldn't help thinking that I was glad I'd be going down the hill and not up as it was incredibly steep. However logic dictates that if you are going down a hill, and knowing the run finishes where it begins, at some point I'd be coming back up, albeit from an alternative direction. After turning off Crowborough Hill I was met by this sight.
That's right a cascading river. As a lot of my running is cross country I don't have many inhibitions about running through whatever nature throws at me. However the temperature has dropped recently and there has been talk of snow at the weekend so I think my toes are going to be extremely frosty. As I mentioned this is relatively near the start of the run so I'm going to be cold and wet for the duration of it.
Oh and did I mention it's a two lap course? So just as I've dried off I'm going to be wading through it once again. The organisers have kindly mentioned that if the ford is too deep the 600 competitors can use the bridge.
I can't help feeling that if a vertically challenged person were to walk across with their pet chihuahua it would cause some heavy congestion so I'm not exactly sure how it's going to work with several hundred runners trying to get across at once. At least they've invested in some safety equipment and installed a barrier. On one side.
So once I've trotted down the steep hill, navigated the churning river I then have a hill to run up. Perhaps this picture doesn't do it justice, and yes the hill does continue round the bend, but even in the car it seemed to go on for an eternity.
While it may not be as steep as the hill I'll be coming down it does go on for a lot longer. And I've got to go up it twice. So as you can imagine I'm now incredibly excited about Sunday's run. I do think it generally pays to know your route so I'm hoping it will be more of a case of better the devil you know than ignorance is bliss. One thing I am pretty sure of is I'm not going to be troubling my personal best this time round.
After finding the start of the course (which is in a loop) I followed it round in the direction I'd be running, along a main road by the name of Crowborough Hill. I couldn't help thinking that I was glad I'd be going down the hill and not up as it was incredibly steep. However logic dictates that if you are going down a hill, and knowing the run finishes where it begins, at some point I'd be coming back up, albeit from an alternative direction. After turning off Crowborough Hill I was met by this sight.
That's right a cascading river. As a lot of my running is cross country I don't have many inhibitions about running through whatever nature throws at me. However the temperature has dropped recently and there has been talk of snow at the weekend so I think my toes are going to be extremely frosty. As I mentioned this is relatively near the start of the run so I'm going to be cold and wet for the duration of it.
Oh and did I mention it's a two lap course? So just as I've dried off I'm going to be wading through it once again. The organisers have kindly mentioned that if the ford is too deep the 600 competitors can use the bridge.
I can't help feeling that if a vertically challenged person were to walk across with their pet chihuahua it would cause some heavy congestion so I'm not exactly sure how it's going to work with several hundred runners trying to get across at once. At least they've invested in some safety equipment and installed a barrier. On one side.
So once I've trotted down the steep hill, navigated the churning river I then have a hill to run up. Perhaps this picture doesn't do it justice, and yes the hill does continue round the bend, but even in the car it seemed to go on for an eternity.
While it may not be as steep as the hill I'll be coming down it does go on for a lot longer. And I've got to go up it twice. So as you can imagine I'm now incredibly excited about Sunday's run. I do think it generally pays to know your route so I'm hoping it will be more of a case of better the devil you know than ignorance is bliss. One thing I am pretty sure of is I'm not going to be troubling my personal best this time round.
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