I don’t often enter half marathons but the Leighton Dirt Half a really great event that I’m starting to do every year, mainly because it’s very close to where I live and the route is fun, varied and challenging.
It would definitely be a challenge for me this year. I happened to be out until very late the night before and was feeling very bloated and hungover. This and my general lack of fitness meant I had very low expectations in terms of getting any sort of respectable time. All I wanted was to make it around the course in one piece and hopefully clear my head a bit. Then maybe find somewhere to sleep.
The majority of the course takes place on narrow canal towpaths which quickly gets conjested (it feels like there were loads more runners taking part this year) and the lack of overtaking can be annoying. This year, however I was quite happy to take it slow and follow the pack. The field thinned out a bit when we left the canal and joined the muddy trails through brickhill and rushmere and I managed to make a few places on the uphill sections.
Last year’s dirt half was very warm and dry making the conditions actually quite pleasant to run in. We’ve had a lot of rain this year so the event lived up to it’s name with some very muddy and waterlogged sections. I didn’t regret wearing trail shoes and didn’t bother trying to keep my feet dry. I was fully expecting to slip and fall over at some point but somehow managed to stay upright.
I ended up plodding over the finish line at 2:03, nearly 20 minutes slower than last years effort. I still had a lot of fun and I was grateful I didn’t get the alarming temporary blindness that came over me last year when I finished (I have no idea what that was). I’ve done so little regular running this year it felt nice to get out in the fresh air for a couple of hours.
This has highlighted just how unfit I am at the moment so I’m really going to need to use the next few months wisely and start getting in shape again for the MK marathon in May. Let’s see!
