28 days to go!
Now the dance show is over, time to concentrate on the Winter Downs 200
Last weekend was our dance show, “One Night Only”. We had been training for this since January – how they manage to do it in a week, every week, on Strictly amazes me. It was a long day with the dress rehearsal running slightly late due to technical issues. It was all the more painful because the family had had McDonald’s for breakfast whereas I made do with an orange juice so that nothing could interfere with my meds.
We (the adult tap/dance class) had 3 routines to perform: “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” (line dance), “Remembrance Day” (tap dance) and “Hairspray” (tap). For those that know Hairspray, I was Edna Turnblad so was dancing in a dress. The looks on the kids faces as they walked past me while I was waiting to go on stage were hilarious. We had a great time on stage with the odd fluffed part of our routine but Hairspray went really well – hopefully the audience enjoyed it as much as we did.
It was a long day, and the stress/nerves wiped me out, so the planned run on Sunday was binned for a day of rest.
Tonight’s entertainment was a Zoom call hosted by the Centurion Running, which ran (no pun intended) through the important points around the race and covered everything from the kit check before the start, through to how long you could crash at the race HQ after you had (hopefully) finished.
The briefing emphasised how our safety was key, which means that having the proper kit is essential. Not just something that will suffice for the kit check, but could potentially save your life if something went wrong or the conditions live down to our worst expectations. Apart from the official kit list other suggestions of useful extras were being made, including goggles which could be vital up on the South Downs as it was likely that a head wind will await us, which could also bring sleet, snow or hail.
In spite of the potential pitfalls (or because of them?), the buzz around the race is amazing with real positivity coming over the interractions on social media. The important thing for me will be to pace myself as this will be crucial to me being able to complete the 205 miles (it’s been rounded down for the race name) within the 96 hours. The next four weeks will be spent ticking over and maintaining fitness to make sure I can get to the start line, as I suspect I’ll only get one crack at this.
One piece of kit that’s not on the official list is my mood spinner. I dare say that several times it’ll get used to express how I’m feeling during the race!
