Day started with an interesting drive at 6 am from Scarborough over the moors to Whitby. After the heavy snow fall the roads were passable, thanks to the busy snowploughs, but there was still quite a lot of snow on the roads....
The race itself was tough. A good start along the coast path which was partly frozen, nice dusting of snow and only occasionally muddy. The cycle track from Robin Hood's Bay to Ravenscar was good for running too, deeper snow, maybe four inches and drifting in places, but compacted quickly to create a good surface.
The climb up from Ravenscar was a challenge, with thigh deep snow drifts in places and once reaching the top and heading out onto the moors we ran straight into an icy headwind. Last year this section was very runnable, but today it was knee to thigh deep snow, very rough going, lots of stumbling and falling over and very little running.
It was a relief to get to the checkpoint at the A171 but I was not looking forward to the return leg.
Luckily, with the wind behind and a few more feet having compacted the snow it was a completely different experience and it was possible to run.
Unfortunately the snow back on the cycle track and on the coast path had melted quickly (it was a lovely sunny day!) and the coast path was just a sea of mud, slush and water. Very cold, very slippy, not fun!!
Still, a good workout ahead of WCU. 5 hours 26 minutes to be precise! and, amazingly, a negative split. I'd reached the half way point in 2 hours 50 minutes.
26 miles takes the running tally to 744 and that was also my 27th marathon.
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