I went mad and splashed out on a photo of my Jungfrau marathon finish at Kleine Scheidegg.. Here it is:
Despite Sue's insistence that I'm doing a cheesy double thumbs-up sign, in an embarrassing dad dancing kind of way, I'm not... it's a triumphant victory gesture slightly undone by sheer ragged exhaustion.
There were other photos available which showed more of the snowy mountain peaks in the background, but they really were too gruesome and scary.
I ran the second of the Hampshire cross-country league on Saturday. The weather was overcast and mild, with the going soft underfoot after some rain the night before. We (Sue, the boys and I) arrived in the nick of time to check the course map and get straight to the start.
These cross-country races are quite different to other events. The standard is very high and the competition is fearsome. We set of with an immense pounding of feet on the earth and very soon the leaders were stretched out in front. After a short lap of the field at the top of the hill there are two long laps through the forest, with muddy ruts, tricky cambers, steep slopes and long drags. Here's a brief clip of that initial lap, including commentary from Sue and Lynne:
By the second lap I was running at the same pace as a few others, with very little overtaking. I could see someone about 50m ahead who looked from behind like a girl, in fact suspiciously like Rebekah Brooks. surely I could overtake him/her? I had nothing left at the finish and the former tabloid editor cruised in well ahead. Here's the video.
I was 83rd out of 227 runners, up from 109th in 2011, and pleasingly nearly a minute faster. Next up, Popham airfield on 1 December.
