For my last event of 2018, I’ve kept it local by entered the Leighton Buzzard ‘Dirt’ half marathon. It’s also the shortest event I’ve done this year, but I think that made it a lot harder as I’ve spent the year plodding out the long distances but not focusing on speed at all.
This is the second time I’ve entered this event and I really enjoy it. The course is a nice mixture of flat canal towpaths, hilly trails and some really fun woodlands in Rushmere Park where a lot of my training runs took place this year. It usually gets pretty muddy (hence the name) but this year wasn’t too bad.
I did try my best to run a decent pace for this and while it was definitely the fastest I’ve run in a long time, all I could manage was a rather average 8 minute pace throughout. I really worked for it as well, panting away while the other runners were breezing by effortlessly. I also went a bit blind for a few minutes after I finished which was worrying… I must have overdone it!
I came in at 1:46, not my best by a long way, but it was still a lot of fun, and a really nice event. Very well organised, a good crowd and a nicely varied and challenging course
