Race 2 – Chasewater Christmas Pudding Dash

Nope – I decided to enter the Chasewater Christmas Pudding 10k the following weekend (4th December) with a few of my friends/Kinisi running buddies.

Feeling buoyed by last week and the ankle cleared up, on the Tuesday before I was discussing how close I could get to the same time again as I had felt comfortable at Wilmslow.

Bang – visit to the dentist – abscess and antibiotics…now this doesn’t affect my legs but it did affect my sleep and when Sunday morning came I was feeling a little drained but as with WIlmslow – turn up and give it a go – worst case it’s a Sunday morning with friends.

How cold! It was flippin’ freezing – I hadn’t been to Chasewater before – oh my that wind blows across the water. Myself and Cheryl were fully wrapped up when we went out for a ‘warm up’ (Anne-Marie and Lisa stayed sensibly in the car) and by the time we were gathered at the start it would be fair to say we were cccccoooolllllddd.

Slightly different than Wilmslow, not quite as slick and there appeared to be a few more Christmas Puddings racing, there was also a 5k at the same start place and time and there was a least one <10 year old standing on the front row – to be fair I was only about 5 rows back from the front but I had been told it was a bottleneck start.

That wasn’t were the differences ended – the first 100 meters on a narrow path, then gravel, grass, puddles, a bit of tarmac before more gravel, grass, muddy paths and woods and the freezing cold wind and rain – there was no repeat of my ‘lucky’ pacing here.

I judged my starting position pretty well, a few people sped off into the distance and we soon came pretty spread out and wasnt really until about 7k when we started to lap people that there was much to focus on other than the feeling in your fingers – I bet on a sunny warm day it is a lovely route but on a day like that I just wanted to get finished – I crossed the line in about 42:40 ish by my watch  – grabbed my Christmas pudding and then jogged back to cheer my colleagues on as best I could. We then grabbed a coffee and tried to thaw out on the trip back to Stone.

Again it was great to see a few familiar faces at the race and this is the best bit about running the social aspect of seeing lots of friends running around in the cold, wet, sun, snow, etc but all still smiling (sort off) at the finish…love it.

As it turned out I finished 15th and 1st V50 – just hoping Royal Mail appears with my prize before I get to the V55 category in 2027!!.

Now..is that it….? Nope!