A year has past and my journey is well on the way now.  Things booked in and plans been made for completion of this first part of my challenge which was to run 100 miles.  I managed to crawl out of bed on New Years Day for the second year running and attempt a Hardmoors run.    Any day where you find yourself having to get up at a ridiculous time is hard enough, but on New Years Day that's a special kind of madness.  Luckily for me there were quite a few of us heading out from Fylingdales Village Hall.  It was the coldest morning for a while as had to scrape the ice from the windscreen and get the car heated up.  The roads were gleaming with treacherous black ice ready to catch you out if you were still a bit sleepy.  There was a crispness about the air and with a hint of sun rising in the east it looked to be a great morning for a run.
That wasn't to be ha ha!  Whitby and Robinhoods bay were deep mud!  We set off down the Cinder track heading to Whitby Abbey which, really, is a nice run its easy on the foot with a steady incline before the descent in to Whitby itself.  This is where it lures you in, it really starts at the foot of the Abbey and the beginning of the stairway of pain 'You have to run the steps!' the race description said, well I couldn't stop laughing all morning ha ha.....ha ha ha....ha ha ha ha!  Funny guy I thought!  I managed to get to the top holding a lung in each hand it felt like and gasping for some crisp sea air, the Marshal at the top didn't look worried in fact he asked me if I was doing the 15 or the 30, if I was doing the 15 I would have been doing bloody well since they'd only set off 20 mins beforehand so I took this as a complement to my fresh athletic look lol!  Round the corner we went and there it was, the mud bath!  It stayed like that for the majority of the course apart from when you come out of the village hall and head off towards Ravenscar as this is back on the Cinder Track.  The mud in places was 2 to 3 inches deep and no where to run either side, so the only option most of the time was to just go through it and hope for the best.


 I felt ok after the first section which was about 13 miles, it was the second section that seemed to break me physically and mentally, I allowed myself to start doubting my ability and reasoning for being there.  Looking back now I know the mental training side of this challenge is equal to the physical conditioning because once doubt gets into your thoughts its tough to break away from and bounce back.  I didn't just doubt myself for that run I doubted myself for everything I had planned in the future.  Its amazing how this can also soon turn around, after the disappointment I felt I soon started using my failings as positives to how I will overcome this, how I will make sure this won't happen again, which you can't guarantee of course, but I believe there is only failure if no lessons learnt.  I learnt plenty that day!