Hi all!
New year, new month and new challenges to have fun and improve your performance at the same time .
That’s was the idea to start with on January, as I was lucky enough to get a “Good for Age” place at London Marathon in 2017 after a few preview applies, so my main focus for this first months until April, it is train hard for the race day and as a part of the preparation , I really wanted to sign up for two half-marathons as apart of the journey.
The first one was planned for begging of January and after I had a nice invitation from my crazy ultra-runners friends from Wild trail Runners team, I decided to join them for the first adventure of the year taking part in the next edition of Coastal Trail Series in Dover, on 14th January,which consists in completed you race distance running beside 110m high cliffs across the trails.
Without doubts I signed for it having on mind to complete the half-marathon distance with another running friends. The anecdotic thing about the registration, it was about “that question”: ” Can you swim 50m?” . When I read that, I can lie that I laughed ,but after I saw the video, I am sure about that it would be possible to fail over into the sea .
Well,after 2 months training, the week of the race arrived and the rumors about the race could be cancelled due to bad weather including snow was approaching to the location. I thought that it won’t snow that hard to get until that point, but one day before the race the bad news was confirmed: The race has been cancelled!. I couldn’t believe but I trust that they did for a reason.
With frustrating thoughts being already on racing mood, we decided to go ahead to spend the weekend as the accommodation was already booked and explore the area that many of us we didn’t know.
We arrived on Friday night at Southcliffs hotel, an old classic hotel with amazing views to the sea, definitely it was a great deal! Big window,made you feel you are on the sea surface, able to see even from the bed,just imagine that you open your eyes in the morning and the first the you see it is the sea with spectacular sunrise.
Saturday arrived and after a great breakfast in the bed with this stunning views,we went ahead to the start point of the race,where the CTS crew were advised to be careful or no run,offering tea ,coffee and our race t-shirt. With all the warnings, I ran with Wild Trail runners 1o km and it was fun! We ran all together, talking ,laughing and encoring each other. The surface wasn’t that bad ,but it is true that was icy and muddy in some points that being so close to the cliffs could be dangerous. However,we completed the route with a great sunshine all day and without any issues..well… I have to say that I felt over down hill sliding down on the mud ! But everything was ok,just I little bit dirty ;).
Back to the start point was really windy to run but helping each other on file we completed being welcomed by the CTS crew with medals and snacks,which was really nice from them even if the race didn’t happen.
After all,we back t the hotel to get change and we enjoyed the rest of the weekend exploring Dover,Folkerstone and Sandgate, enjoying their restaurants having a dinner celebration with the crew to celebrate this great adventure,which was really worthy.
My conclusion of all of it, it is not act against the warnings,but be always aware of that all the factors. That’s the reason we did only 10k instead more,which showed us that nothing ,can’t stop your passion and do what we love. It was an incredible experience having time to enjoy and relax..and I can’t wait for the next one!.
I hope you guys like it and I see you soon with more 😉
By Miriam Jimenez