Pembrokeshire Coast Challenge
Forrest Gump said “Stupid is as stupid does”.
In other words, don’t judge appearance, judge the actions.
Well I have entered the Pembrokeshire Coast Challenge. I entered on a whim on Tuesday after reading something on an internet post. It’s less than two weeks away. It seemed like a good idea at the time…
But within a few seconds of entering my credit card numbers and clicking the last button I felt that I had made a silly decision. The last couple of days hasn’t changed that either.
To be honest, I thought it was a silly decision when I clicked the button but I still clicked. All my ironmans have been carefully planned from a year out. I’ve had a plan (or at least all the years but one I had a plan). Now I am giving spontaneity a go.
After clicking, I told the person at work who sits opposite me that I had entered. They said “where’s Pembrokeshire?”. I wasn’t sure so I checked on google maps – it looked like the South West corner of Wales – Erm, that will take a long to get to (and where will I stay)?
“So how far is it?” – Erm, about 78.6 miles. A marathon a day over three days!
“How much training have you done?” – Erm, not much. I haven’t done a proper long run for nearly a year-and-a-half. I have done a few hour-twenty-type runs but not many longer ones.
“How long do you think it will take?” Er, no idea. A quick check – the guy who won it took 13:54, the person who was last took 26:37. That’s a long time. The middle finishers took around 19 hours. This was split for the 19 hour lot was: Day 1 – 5:44, Day 2 – 6:11, Day 3 – 7:20
So I told a few more people at work to make sure that I don’t chicken out. One person thought it was appropriate that the official charity was Mencap.
I have had a few days now to think about it. And I am scared. The things that worry me are:
- injury: How will my body hold up? What about my feet? I get blisters easy
- the weather: What if the rain starts falling horizontally? What if it is foggy?
I’ll have plenty of time to worry about the distance when I get there!