John and I did the Fred Hughes 10 Miler at St. Albans, Hertfordshire on Sunday 21st January. It was a freezing cold morning. The sky was grey, dark and mizzle when we left home in Barnet. While heading north to St. Albans, we saw the snow falling and hitting the windscreen. The temperature dropped from 3oC in Barnet to -1oC when we arrived in St. Albans. It goes without saying that the weather conditions were tough to start with. It just added more difficulty to the already hilly course.
It was very pretty to watch the snow fall which definitely lent an extra bit of atmosphere to the race. There is a 10 minute walk between the St Columbus School where the carpark, changing rooms and race HQ are located and the actual start line. On our way to the start line, we were already covered with snow. 700+ poor souls springing up and down before the start line just to get the body to warm up. I felt sorry for myself with my runny and stuffy nose caused by the cold weather. I did have a spur of the moment of thought of throwing in the towel and letting it go. On a Sunday morning when it’s snowing, a sensible person would curl up in bed and watch TV (news about the snow “in the UK”!!) but there were 700+ of us who are not sensible.
At 10am sharp, off we go, the race started. The surface was very icy. I could even hear the cracking noise of the ice beneath my feet while running. My feet were so cold. Note to self: Vibram FiveFingers trainers are not suitable for snow running. I was also very cautious of not to slip. If I sprained my ankle 3 months before the London Marathon, I might not be able to recover in time. And because of my concern, I carried my phone with me just in case I slipped and injured myself, I could call for help.
By some miracle, I managed to finish the entire 10 miles in the snow without falling. My time was 1 hour 36 minutes 47 seconds. John finished in 1 hour 48 minutes 17 seconds.
Great support from the marshals throughout the route. They were just amazing. If we runners felt cold, the poor marshals felt even colder by standing along the route with no exercise. They still shouted out encouraging words to the runners while they must be freezing. I hope they have all thawed out by now.
When I looked at the official race photos, I was very delighted to see how lovely they are. This was probably the first batch of official photos showing I was running in the snow !
