Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 June 2007 09:06:24
[goes on a bit this doesn't it!]
Just 3 miles later at Soulbury Three Locks we met up with Steve who was to run with me through the rest of the night. They swapped the head torch for the car keys, Rachel having finished her longest (and possibly slowest!) run to date and off for a well deserved kip.
Steve and I set off up the locks, somehow getting stuck alongside the top one when we should have been crossing the bridge beyond, not wanting to go back we carefully crossed the lock gate which felt precarious at best after 87miles!
We settled into some kind of run/walk rhythm but I couldn't tell you what it was! Passing through Leighton Buzzard and a handful of support crews in Tesco car park, once again I remember the location in the light last year, it's still dark, a sign things are going well. On the way out of town there's a mist over the canal from the rain hitting it, a gentle breeze slides it across the canal where it lifts over the edge onto the towpath and over a canal boat moored up, forming surreal eddies in our torchlight.
Along to the locks at Slapton where we found a Scotsman laying on the floor, he was on the phone and acknowledged us positively so we carried on. For a good 7 or 8 miles off this next section the towpath is grassy with an uneven muddy rut, this may have been runnable in the daylight and with fresh legs but being wet and dark we settled for as fast a walk as we could muster. Still a better pace than I'd have been able to muster on my own.
Light slowly creeps into the sky, and soon the torches are off. At one point I'm sure it even stopped raining for a moment, it soon started again which was when I realised I've been completely unaware of the rain for hours. The towpath improves toward Marsworth, I recognise the turn and the bridges and know that checkpoint 7 at a tantalising 99.8miles is just a few steps away. Inevitably it takes longer to come than I expect, but we're there, a significant psychological milestone and a personal best to get there comfortable under 24hrs.
We both take on some coffee & lovely chocolate cake, Alicja is tucked with her feet up in a corner of the tent being tended to. The fact I've caught her at all implies she's had a bad race so far, and her look backs that up. A quick detour up to the pub to use their toilet and we're on our way.