7th May The half marathon that wasn't

Sometimes fate just seems to conspire to determine the events of your life. This morning was one such occasion. 24 months ago I had signed up to run the trail half marathon at Langsett reservoir just outside Sheffield. Then came the pandemic and despite at least three attempts by the oranisers to rearrange the event it has taken until today to actually be able to stage it. 

Now you might think that 24 months should be long enough for me to actually get in shape to complete this run. Think again because 13 miles up hill and down dale is a bit of a step up from a 5km park run. Add to that the need to carry all weather emegency kit on route, despite the temps being predicted to reach the mid teens, plus all the food and fluid one might need, and its fair to say that my enthusiasm for this peak based plod was starting to wane. 

But I set off on a beautiful sunny day in plenty of time, having resigned mysefl to several hours of physical exertion until my sat nav decided to take matters into it's own hands.Or should I say until I decided it must have made a mistake trying to tempt me off the main road, when in fact I made the mistake in not actually listening to it. The result of my inattention was a 14 mile detour into the heart of Sheffield, along various tram lines and finally arriving at Langsett a mere 10 mins before the half marathon was due to set off.

Now I could have attempted to get to the start time but sometimes its better to stop and ponder whether someone is trying to tell you something. And in this case that something was to make the decision to give the 13 miler a miss and instead drop down to the 10km run that I had done back in 2018 in a snow storm that resulted on a beard frozen solid.

And it was the right decision with some even more pedestrian plodders than myself having entered the undulating 10km distance thus elevating my status to almost atheltic. It proved to be just what I needed. And much more importantly, what I was just about able to manage.