Beautiful Day !!

An ironic title for today as it was by far the worst weather of the 8 days so far, It was incredibly wet & I did indeed struggle, but the time perhaps doesn't show just how much I struggled, I got round today in 4 hours 14 mins & 33 seconds.

Another reason for the title today is the fact that I only have Saturday & Sunday left & once I have done "you two" it'll be over (you get it ?!!).

With just 3 to go I think the attitude today was that the bulk of the work was done,but 26.2 miles is still is & always will be 26.2 miles & is never to be taken lightly.

Adam (Tango/The Pirate/Cowboy/jesus !!) was once again first home in 3.13 sharing first place with Top Cat Tim Charles, Stevie "Wonder" Edwards was a further 5 mins back & Lorna Gold "The Velociraptor" bought home the gold in the ladies event with a flying sub 4 to take 4th overall on the day. Leon "El Bee" & Adam Thwaites struggled through injuries but got the job done.

The wheels really fell off for me at about 18 miles up until then I was (just !) on target to dip under 4 hours, At 22 miles our physio Amy gave me a lovely cup of tea & some jelly babies & that picked me up & I was also help by some inspirational tunes - Highway to Hell, Born to run & Bohemian Rhapsody ( I was "scarmouching" as I went past my mate Gareth on the course, he recommended I don't give up the day job - cheeky bugger !.) I did alot of internal whining out there today, but finally said to myself "pull yourself together & get going" & so I put the wheels back on, sucked it up & headed "home" even just managing to break the 4.15 barrier.

The Cure were very unlucky to miss out on today's title, my pre race choice was going to be "Friday I'm in love" but I wasn't in love with it today & at 25 miles with tears welling up "boys don't cry" came on the ipod & I didn't but wouldn't have cared if I had & can assure you there will be tears on Sunday,combing joy, excitement & relief.

Just one more marathon to go before Sundays "Victory Lap" of the lake.

Today's "Champagne performance" was from "Fetchies" Dave A & YP1, not only did they give suppport & help out with drinks stations Dave even gave me a dry shirt to wear - I was soaked to the skin & had to peel my shirt off.I was very grateful for the instant dryness & more importantly warmth.

Looking forward to seeing more mates out there tommorrow & running with all the usual suspects on Sunday "Kaizer Souzee" will be out in his Collingwood vest as long as he can keep the wife happy in the meantime ?!!

Fox on the Run :)