Mad Dogs & Englishmen

Oh and English Women as well.

Running seems to be at a premium at the moment, but there has been some increased focus on hydration.

Tuesday night I didn't go out running with PWR as the wife is back running so she went instead.  I was planning on a Wednesday lunchtime run.  Took all my gear into work and went to get changed and then realised I didn't have any innersoles in my trainers!  I wear Sorbothane insoles and had forgot that I had switched them the previous week.  Wednesday night was my work Xmas bash.  Thursday was officially one of the longest days of my life!

After a six week absence I was back at Bromley Parkrun to record my 40th Parkrun, now only 10 away from the first t-shirt!  Managed a 23:35.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250594357

Sunday morning was the Ditton Turkey Run, hosted by Maidstone Harriers.  With a relatively late start of 11am and only a 45 min drive from home, most people would assume, oh a bit of a lie in.  Not in my household as I have an alarm clock that at the moment a) I can't turn off and b) I can't change the alarm from going off at 6am!

So my pre-run prep included porridge, a game of monster bingo and doing some puzzles on the floor with my alarm clock Max.

At 9am, I let the wife know that I was off and she had to get up (she had been practising hydrating Saturday Night)

I picked up a Matt a fellow PWR and arrived in Ditton at 10am.  We collected our numbers and met up with a group of fellow PWRs.  There were 25 PWRs there in total.  One was missing due to over hydration on the Saturday night!

This was one of the PWRs Grand Prix events, an internal club competition where you are racing against runners of similar ability to yourselves.  This makes for healthy competition and means as well as having our racing snakes competing, it also means that runners from our Tuesday night Group One also can and do take part.

Now this is the reason for the title.  It was cold, not as bad as it had been, but cold enough due to the cold wind.  Some people thought they would keep warm by wearing 'Onesey' Reindeer outfits and along with them, there were Elves, Santas, a Christmas Tree, a Christmas Cracker, a full size Turkey, a sexy Nurse to name but a few and the icing on the cake was a man in a Mankini, yes you read that right, a man in a Mankini!

To prove that there were mad Englishwomen as well and mad Englishmen, one lady wore a sexy Christmas outfit complete with hold up stockings and then finished the race in high heels (I am pretty sure I saw her during the race though wearing trail shoes)

I went crazy and wore a Santa hat!

The course was challenging and very muddy in places, although I am told it was worse last year!  I did see a couple of people take full blown stumbles, not nice in the conditions.  The marshalls from Maidstone Harriers were great, I particularly liked the comment from one at about the 1m mark shouting "Well done you are doing well, you are nearly there, actually that last bit is a lie, never mind keep going"

I finished the 6.4 mile course in 117th place with a chip time of 53:37. 



This race event has to be one of the best value events that you can enter!  For an entry fee of £14 you get the following;

• A well organised and fun event
• A well marshalled nice course in Kent (muddy, narrow in places probably not a PB race)
• Chip timing
• A nice medal
• A long sleeved t-shirt
• A mini Christmas Pudding
• Mince pies and hot drinks afterwards
• Free entry into a raffle

I would highly recommend this event and will be back next year.

Until next time
TJH