Well, I don’t know where the time went, but it’s Gelt Gladiator day! Having not done a huge amount (read: any) prep for it in the last few weeks, I have only my last few preparations to share – how I manage will have to come later…
So, what’s the slightly anxious mud-runner wearing this year? Gloves!
Extra grippy ones…I decided I liked my gym ones too much, they were too pretty so I bought some cheaper, thinner ones yesterday. I have a faint hope they’ll make me very very very slightly less likely to fall straight off the walls again, particularly as the 10k runners have already started round the course sloshing mud everywhere now, and you never know, they may turn out to be magic gloves which give me if not super strength, than at least enough to actually be able to make it across more than 3 monkey bars before I fall off… A girl can dream right?!
We went shopping for some stuff for P, who doesn’t have any running gear so would have been in shorts and a vest when he wanted something with legs and long sleeves…so he now has a very pretty blue outfit and looks far more like a runner than I ever do, curse his super-fast-burn-all-the-food-off metabolism <_< He’s been dressed in it, including trainers but not wearing his gloves yet, since about 8am this morning…having been up since 4am (he is not good at coming off night shifts at all), he’s gone for a mid-morning nap before we leave, still wearing said trainers! Keen as mustard obviously 😛
On the subject of trainers, this video has been doing the rounds as a good way to keep your shoes tied tight around your heel so they’re less likely to fall off. Duck-tape also seems to be a mud-run favourite, but as I have forgotten to obtain more this will have to be the go-to to try!
Looks pretty straight forward right? Except that for this wonderful event, I will be wearing my trash-’em pinkies, and they don’t have that extra eyelet hole in them…what’s a girl to do?! A little modification was needed…and I probably wouldn’t have done this if I hadn’t known when I bought these shoes that there’s a chance they may not survive this race. As it was I still had to pick grass and mud out of them from the last event at Otterburn…
I may have mauled them very very slightly with a scalpel… My feet feel like they still have space to swell (which unfortunately will happen) as the trainers aren’t tight around my foot itself, they’re just slightly garrotted at the top…I don’t think I’ll drive there (it’ll take about an hour) with them tied like this, but it should be fine for the race, and my shoes do definitely feel secure on my feet! You never know, I may decide I prefer it and tie them like this all the time, who knows?!
The most important part of race prep? FOOD! I was feeling a proper pig this morning (and last time I was heading to a trail race!) and had 2 bagels for breakfast, and then a chocolate and cherry cream muffin for a mid-morning snack…and it’s not impossible I’ll have another bagel before we leave…I think there’s food there, but we’ll not have time to mob the burger van until after the event – and I’m expecting it to be after 3pm by then – our wave leaves at 2pm and this is not going to be a record breaking 5k!
Just to build that little bit more anticipation…the Gelt Gladiator team have posted some of the photos from the final course set up last night…you can find them on their facebook page here.
Just need to raid a cash machine on the way there, and we’ll be ready to go! Once I’ve packed that change of clothes, and spare shoes, and figured out what I did with the waivers, and dug out my selfie stick, and maybe lost something else again…
See you at the finish line!
Blue Runnings 
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