From start, continue ahead up steep hill to gate...

So, the last you heard from me was that I had a fat ankle. Well, probably against all sensible people's best advice I decided to still do the Dunstable Downs 20. In my defence, despite having to work from home as I couldn't walk on Wednesday, my fat ankle recovered quickly. I was back at work on Thursday (albeit with an impressive limp much to the amusement of my colleagues) and moving a lot more smoothly on Friday. By Sunday, although the ankle was still quite puffy the pain and the limp had more or less gone. However, this race was still going to be a challenge. Tash and Gary gave me a good talking to at the start, telling me to turn back at the point where the 10 mile turned back, my marathon was more important than a silly old trail race, blah, blah, blah. I did listen to them and I was very aware that doing something daft now would really screw things up impressively. I am also a very determined person and I don't like to give up so I was hoping my head would persuade me to be sensible. The trail race was not marshalled or marked but had fairly detailed instructions and, as instructed, from the start we followed the grassy path straight up the steep hill on to the downs, through the gate and into the mist. It took a good half hour for the mist to clear and we then went through fields, up and down hills, past farms and generally meandered along a very pleasant route through the countryside. I would highly recommend this run, it was extremely enjoyable. At the turn off point for 10 miles, the ankle was holding up well and I decided to continue. As the next few miles went on, some through a pretty rutted ploughed field, treacherous for ankles at the best of times, I lost sight of the few people I had been running with and I was on my own (I blame my slow time on the fact I was having to do all the navigating myself) and the instructions were good but with no real sense of perspective, at one point I spent quite some time looking for a turn on the right which turned out to be quite some distance from where it sounded like it would be! It was a hot day, so the water and jelly bean stops were very welcome indeed, they also had little pieces of Mars bars too...mom... Anyway, there are a lot of excuses here and I was slow and, especially near the end, I found it very hard indeed. As I finished, not last may I add, Gary was sat a few metres from the finish funnel, on a deckchair, wearing his sunglasses and reading a newspaper. It was nice and quiet and he looked very relaxed indeed! So, how is the ankle then? Fine actually and, despite my very slow time (4:14:39), I am happy with this in a "time on your feet" kind of way!