Race 10 : The Sussex Maverick - Amberley (Long Distance)

Race: The Sussex Maverick

Distance: 14.3miles

Time: 2 hours 23 mins

In the weeks leading up to this race I was definitely fearful of it. It would be the longest distance I have ever ran… ever. The night before however my brain and body decided that zero f**ks would be given. “It’s just another race right?” I thought to myself while laying on the sofa gorging on salted caramel filled chocolates. (Chocolate is a carb right- so technically I was carb loading) I was grateful that my body and brain decided that I wasn’t going to go into exam fear territories of nerves as last weekend was horrible! We had a nice pre-race evening with my Bro-in-law Oli Slack as he had come to crash at ours (and be fed) before joining us racing the next day.

It wasn’t too early a start as race mornings went. The Alarm went off at 7- which is a nice lay in for myself and Alex. We all managed to get ready, and porridge down our necks and out of the house by 8:45 (only 15 minutes later than our best case scenario estimates...not bad)

It was a short drive to Amberley for us which made a nice change. It was a very uninspiring day weather wise- which definitely affected my levels of excitement/ nerves. There was just a coating of grey over EVERYTHING and I was a bit ‘meh’ until I bumped into Kat! Kat was visiting the UK from Oslo and had (stupidly?) decided to spontaneously join us on our little run. Rob Jones (AKA Stride Fit ) was also running the long distance and wasn’t feeling great so I am sure seeing Kat and myself dissolve into excited chatter made him even more excited for the long race ahead.

The start of the race itself was very bizarre. There was a lot of nervous energy in the air mostly because of the hundreds of barking dogs! It was a race that you can bring your dog to run with you- which is awesome, but it does give the build up to the start of a race a sort of prison- break feel as you struggle to shout at your friends over the sound of all the dogs. We were soon off and on our way. It was a well attended race and everyone started at the same time regardless of the distance you had signed up to do (Short, Medium, Long).

I really cannot remember the race itself in much detail. I ran with friends this time which was lovely and I spent a great deal of the race chatting! (whoops!) I didn’t look at my watch at all and the race had no mile markers so I had no idea how long we had been running or how much distance we had covered. There we certainly some hills , and there were some moments where you could see for miles- just hundreds of colourful lycra-clad blobs on the horizon. I think as we were so chatty we were attracting other runners to run near us (or get the hell away from us- depending on their preference… )

After a while I did get curious to learn how far we had covered and it was revealed to me that we were only just at the half way point. (7 Miles). This got the fear into me a bit! It didn’t help that soon after this reveal we started a part of the race that wasn’t very inspiring. I’m sure some people would of been happy to see their old friend tarmac in the middle of this trail race, but a 1 or 2 mile long stretch of straight, flat tarmac just after hitting a bit of a mental ‘wall’ was not what I needed at that point.

Luckily we hit another drinks stop at around two thirds of the way into the race and not too long after the long flat boring path of doom. I loaded up on some sort of sugary fruity drink and ate a slice of watermelon (!) and we were off again! We found our friend Tim Bird at this drinks stop so we soon had another loud chatty person running with us for the last part of the race. The last few miles were ok to start with but the last two were really tough. My legs were tired and were starting to protest at what I was putting them through (sorry legs!). The last mile of the race consisted of a REALLY long and steep staircase that slowed everyone right down and gave anyone with any knee pain a real test and then a final and tough mixed terrain 0.5 mile slog back to the race HQ. (via the car park!) Kat and I upped the pace slightly and despite feeling like I might faint - she got me over the finish line. It was a great feeling and there were lots of sweaty celebratory hugs afterwards.

After a bit of lackluster stretching we piled into the car and stopped at a pub. Gin and Tonic after a race really is amazing. The curry we had later that night was even better. I’m definitely not loosing any weight during this challenge. I am rewarding myself with too many treats! But there we have it…. 4 months in and a third of the races done there.

#Running #trainrun #girlsrun #race #eventstolive #tunbridgewellshalf #halfmarathon #roadrace #maverickraces