Tom’s blog

It all began well. There must have been 40 competitors assembled on a murky June morning at 5.30am. After the briefing we were off. These long events always start of jolly with everyone laughing and joking. It wasn’t long though before I found myself on my own and thats where I remained for the next 30 miles. It’s impossible to describe how hard it is for someone who is not so nimble on their feet to not just run such a long distance but also to handle the very difficult terrain. I did seem to muddle along though.

 Things wouldn’t have been so bad but the weather was approaching with great wet fury.  At 22 miles at the midway checkpoint there was some relief in changing my entire soaked clothing and a fresh pair of trainers but already my limbs where in intense pain.  I realised at this point that my preparation for this event was no where near where it should have been.  The training I did was not enough and I decided to walk through most of Penzance, Newlyn and Mousehole.  I managed jogging for a bit but not for long.

At Lamorna, I seemed to feel better but quite warm so I opted to take off my (wet) middle layer.  This was to prove my downfall, because as I set off it started to rain - hard. Within the space of 20 minutes I had gone from being too warm to being too cold (IN JUNE!!). My resolve was lost and with no fellow runners to pick me up, I baled out at Porthcurno-6 miles from the end.  If I hadn’t done so then things would have got difficult.  Never mind, the moral is to prepare, prepare, prepare and not one for being beaten I will be there at the start next year, all going well.