Foxlake looked particularly stunning today. It always seems to be sunny in Dunbar, and windy! I was particularly taken by the colour of the water which looked impossibly blue, and as it turns out it is impossible and aparantly the colour is thanks to an organic food colouring they add to the water! Weird (but effective)!
The pre race was fairly relaxing with everyone sitting around in the sun, I didn't feel nervous at all despite all the fit looking people. Lucky for me it was a relatively small field, so not as many fit looking people as there could have been.
At 9.30 we were off and it only took a few hundred yards for me to realise my shoelace was undone, so without having to strategise I was immediately dropped and had no need to worry about keeping pace with the group! It took the pressure off me a bit but I was a bit miffed that I was off the back so quickly. With the exception of the first few kilometers today's route is one I know well so I was comfortable pacing myself, although when I did check my Garmin it did appear I was running a bit faster than normal.
It was really warm and I regretted wearing my gilet but I had nowhere to put it and my number was attached to it so I just sucked it up. There was a woman in front of me who I ended up tailing for about 1.5 miles. We were running at the same kind of pace and as we were on a bit of singletrack I couldn't get past her so I just stayed put. I had a chance at the 7km mark where we both stopped at the aid station to have a drink, but we seemed to do that in sequence too so I ended up behind her again for a bit! Eventually I got past her after apologising for heavy breathing so close to her for so long. She just laughed and said no problem.
As I ran towards the toilet block in the John Muir Country Park I could see Ruby Matt and Nethy. It really lifted my spirits and I was delighted to get some more water and a kiss from Ruby. I told them I couldn't stop, mainly because I didn't want the woman I'd finally passed catching me again. I also knew I'd see them on the way back.
Part of the route took us out across the bridge at Belhaven Bay and by the time I reached it the tide had started coming in so I had to wade up to my knees to cross. It was very cooling and I was glad I had on my Inov8 Roclites as the water just poured out of them. On my way back towards the Country Park I came across 3 runners (2 women and a man) who had been doing walk/run up ahead of me. I passed them while they were walking but they caught me again and squeezed past me on a really narrow bit of track that runs alongside the Llama field at East Links Family Park. Then they ran close in front of me and made it impossible for me to pass had I wanted to. When we got onto a slightly wider farm track they stopped again and this time I had to go out of my way to get around them! I was really annoyed cause they're behaviour seemed downright rude to me. I decided to up my pace knowing there was only a few miles left. No way I was going to let them sprint past me on the line! haha! As it turned out they were spent and I think they walked the entire way back to the finish.
I managed to do a mini sprint over the line and felt pleased I'd finished, although slightly disappointed the organisers had shortened the route by a mile to avoid a bit of farm track that was being used. Never mind, it was a lovely route and it was a beautiful day and there was a little group of fellow CaniXers there to chat to afterwards (including Alison who made us all proud by taking first female). So all in all a very nice morning. Turns out I was 11th out of 19 women, so not too bad. I don't think I'll go back to do it again in June, but I may enter the Pentlands race in August.
The other thing that made my day was getting my new CaniSport decal for our van. Viv's husband Ali found them online and organised one for us all. Mine is especially great as the runner has dreadlocks and the dog looks exactly like Nethy!
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