Slaughterford

Thursday 22nd January
2k on the treadmill followed by approximately 6 miles outside (or 55 minutes on my feet). My whole body felt tired so not up for a fast run tonight.

Friday 23rd January
Complete rest. Did a big shop at Sainsburys after work and was absolutely shattered after that. Was looking forward to Jonathan Ross' comeback but was so tired after a week at work I fell asleep at the beginning of the show.

Saturday 24th January
Body pump in the morning but missed out squats and lunges to keep my legs fresh. Nice to see Louise from work in the gym for the first time, having just joined Fitness First.

Went through my core exercises after the class. Didn't find them all that strenuous so must get Ali to give me a new routine.

Sunday 25th January
Competed (if that's the right word) in the Sluaghterford 9 mile race. I was looking forward to this for a number of reasons. For a start, I had heard good things about it. Scott Garrett in my department raves about it, having done it a couple of times, and Tamara Howard described it as "a good training run." Indeed, that was all I was hoping to get out of it. This was a tough, off-road race and not a PB course by any means.

I was also looking forward to it because the start is very close to the house I grew up in in Corsham (we lived there until I was about seven when we moved to Melksham) so I was looking forward to seeing the area. But I think more than anything I was looking forward to it because it was one of the few races I have never done before. With so many of them, the novelty really is starting to wear off. But this would be a complete change of scenery.

I was lucky enough not to have to travel to the race alone. Scott decided to pull out of the event and talked Steph into taking his race number for a fiver. Then Steph was very nearly talked out of it by Tamara, who told her "not to do it if you haven't trained for it." Thanks mate, rob me of some company for the day why don't you.

Luckily Scott managed to talk her round, but I'm not sure his comment "it's easier than Sodbury" was entirely honest.

We had a bit of a scare the morning of the race when we found that the motorway was closed and we would have to follow a diversion, which saw us stuck behind a slow lorry most of the way there. We arrived later than planned, but still in good time for the mass jog to the start.

I started running with Steph but soon realised this was very much an off-road race and I would do best to make up time wherever I could as I would inevitably be slower through the very muddy and downhill stretches. We did, however run, or rather, walk the first major hill together -and wished we'd had a camera to take a photo at the top to show everyone how steep it was.

I was generally quite quick on the uphill sections and even found myself getting faster on some of the downhill parts. The nine miles seemed to pass quickly and before I knew it I was at the monster hill at the end I had been warned about - only to discover it wasn't, the one after that was the real killer.

I couldn't do any more than trudge up that one and then managed a slow jog up the last hill (where we started) to the finish line. Considering this was a very tough course (I found it harder than the Rough n' Tumble this year, probably due to it being one of the muddier years as I later discovered) I was pretty pleased with a time of 1:35:55. Had I known just how hard it was I'd have thought 1:40 - 1:45 more realistic.

Very impressed with the t-shirt and cereal bar considering the race was so cheap (£7) but was a touch disappointed with the reaction of one of the ladies handing them out. When I asked if she thought I should go for an XL she said "You can only tone." Not what I wanted to hear after 9 miles of mud sweat and tears.

Back to Swindon as we were too muddy to visit my sister as originally planned. Had a stretch, shower and steam at the gym and then home to enjoy a few beers and a good afternoon's TV - there were Girls Aloud and Rihanna concerts on the music channels. Perfect for an afternoon of well-earned relaxation.