Rain and gale force winds. Right (From The Argus)

Rain and gale force winds. Right

1:49pm Sunday 1st November 2009

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I was a bit concerned yesterday about trying any kind of run today, given the weather forecast. But then, you never know what the conditions are going to be on race day, so you need to practice, right?

When I started out, it was raining very heavily, but there wasn't all that much wind, as we're fairly sheltered. Once I hit the seafront, however, I got the full force of all that nature had to offer today. And, can I just say, bloddy hell.

I had decided last night to run towards Worthing and back today, as all the forecasts predicted a westerly wind and I wanted the wind behind me for the second half of the session. Well, the damned wind was distinctly southerly, coming straight off the sea and meaning I had to lean hard to the left to stay upright and running in a straight line.

Combined with the sheeting rain, it was a distinctly unpleasant experience, relieved only occasionally by the warehouses and things on the seaward side of the coast road. Although these sometimes conspired to direct the wind straight into my face, which was even less fun. Unsurprisingly, I saw no other runners for at least the first five miles.

Once I crossed the footbridge in Shoreham, down to the coast proper, I did see 2 other runners and anumber of very dedicated dog walkers. By the time I'd got to that point, I'd kind of resigned myself to not being able to get any wetter. I had been seriously tempted to call it a day at 5 miles and just do a 10-miler, the same as last weekend. But once I got that far I decided to keep going and see what happened.

At just over 6 miles, I found the first public convenience I'd come across in West Sussex - note, Brighton and Hove does this much better!!! The target for the session was '12 to 13' miles. Rather than beating myself up about reaching the 13, I decided to give myself a break and turned round.

At just over 6 miles, I found the first public convenience I'd come across in West Sussex - note, Brighton and Hove does this much better!!!

Lee Colgate

The rain had actually stopped by that point, but the wind was, if anything, strengthening and, being so close to the sea, I was now getting daggers of sea spray 'in me eek' (bit of polari for you there, don't know why, just felt like it). It was still nicer than the first half of the run, condition-wise, although fatigue was beginning to set in.

The rain continued to gust and hit me from pretty much all directions. By 9 miles I was struggling a bit, but was overtaken by this tiny slip of a man who was bounding along like a mad thing and embarassment spurred me to new efforts.

I ended up breaking the final couple of miles in to small chunks - 'just get to that lamppost', 'try to make it to the bus stop', that sort of thing. I finally covered 12.22 miles in 1 hour 58 minutes and 15 seconds. Given the conditions, though, my main aim today was to just do it, never mind the time. I'm back in the warm (although still not centrally heated) house now, with a vodka and anticipating a nice roast dinner.

P.S. STILL no word on my second pair of trainers. Harrumph.