Grim Challenge 2012

Barbara and Pal

My friends Barbara and Pal Skogtjarn were coming over from Sweden for this event. They tried last year, but were foiled by the weather. I wanted them to come and stay with me the night before, and also offered to drive them down to the venue, so it seemed only polite to do the race as well. My legs were not in good run shape, and I hadn't been training, but there is a lot of stopping to wade through mud and rivers, so I hoped that I would make it. I haven't stopped cycling, so I'm still pretty fit aerobically.

We all met up the night before, and Pal was particularly keen to try some beer. I was surprised when we only stopped at drink number four and hoped this wouldn't affect his running too much - I didn't care that much about mine.

I don't remember that much about the race; I was pretty OK for the first 20-30 minutes, but felt some of the familiar ache in my thighs after that. I was right about the conditions helping though; wading in the freezing water took the pain away. I just kept going, and really enjoyed being out in the countryside running again - I do miss it. I got very muddy, but the water washed most of it away, especially the big pond at the finish. I've done this race before, so when I got close to the noise of the announcers at the finish, I knew there was another extra loop so didn't sprint too early this time. Finished feeling pretty good and went to look for my friends.

I finished with a time of 1:10:36 which isn't really important in these kinds of races. The placing is important, and I came 324th out of 2922 finishers which pleasantly surprised me. Even more pleasing was that my friend Pal came 1st overall - an awesome result. Seems like I should have four pints of English beer the night before every race..

Results here on the Grim website, unfortunately  I didn't record my time on any Garmin, due to the mud and don't seem to have any photos stored anywhere either except the one above of my friends at the start.