Lyke Wake Race weekend

What a great weekend... I met up with a 5 other runners from Team Running Bug, the online running site www.therunningbug.co.uk and we all had a few beers and a great meal in the Three Tunns in Osmotherly, half a mile from where the race was to begin.

The staggered start times meant that the runners who had given slower estimated finish time left first, and the faster team members left later, with the aim of running through the field and finishing somewhere around the same time.

I ran a consistent race in line with my training plan, but found the 5 miles of peat bog extremely tiring, trying to push on through calf deep mud and water was certainly well removed from long distance road running, so it was tough but refreshing.
We lost Matt at check point three to a vicious bout of food poisoning induced projectile vomiting. There are rumours that his head span a full 360 degree in true exorsist style, and attenpts to manually re create the move by twisting his head failled to impress! In all seriousness he did extremely well to get that far into the race, and it was touch and go whether he should be hospitalized, it took him the best part of 2 weeks to recover. I almost chose the same Fish Cake dish that Matt had during our meal pre-race, but at the last minute opted for the Monk fish instead, it could so easily have been me!

There is no fixed route over most of the 43 mile race distance from Osmotherly, across the North Yorkshire Moors to Robin Hoods Bay on the east coast. We lost Jo to a navagation error and she was arrested after straying onto MOD Property at Fylingdales. She did say she liked a man in uniform, but I think she would have preferred not to have been disqualified for failing to make the checkpoint in time.

I was very glad to reach the road for the last mile to the finish, and was pleasantly surprised to see Lauren my 7 year old jumping up and down with excitement half a mile out from the finish. She excitedly ran hand in hand with me all the way down hill to the finish, squealing and panting with an ear to ear smile, and so proud to be running with her Dad... priceless!

The rest of this week has been a recovery week and mileage has only just crept into the 30 mile range.
more soon....