This weekend i did eyam half. wow, it was tops! The plan was to take it steady as it is billed as one of the toughest halfs and I have WP in less than a week. The weather forecast was rain, rain and more rain so I was extremely surprised to wake up on sunday morning and see, erm, sunshine. Headed over there with some people from the stockport forum and was very happy to see the weather was still just about holding. Eyam is a beautiful little village nestled in the peaks and there is a real community feel to the race. 

The course starts in the centre of the village, where you do an undulating lap before passing the 1st mile marker and climbing out onto the hill tops. You are climbing all the way upto the 3mile marker, but wow the views over the surrounding valleys are worth it. I had people over taking me up until 3miles, but then i found my stride and put my music on and  enjoyed passing lots more people over the rest of the course. It undulates for the next couple of miles before you start to drop down the other side through tree/forest lined lanes with some beautiful bluebells all the way down from 5 to 9miles. Scissor sisters came on my mp3 player and I was literally bouncing all the way down...despite there being the little question in the back of my head of how I was going to get back up again..all this downhill can only mean 1 big uphill to get back again! You skirt the back of grindleford before making a sharp right turn and immediately start the climb back up again. I had to have a little walk, after 4miles of fantastic downhill running, my legs just couldnt make the switch to uphill running. It only took a couple of minutes before I decided that the run was on again. The course then climbs steadily for the next 2miles and you finally level out about 11miles. The rain started to hit then, but it was actually not too bad. I had a bit of a battle with some walk runners up the final hill, but this made me all the more determined on the descent to the finish. wow a mile or so of brilliant downhill running. Determined not to be overtaken in the latter stages of the race, i threw caution to the wind and let my legs and the hill carry me back down to the village. It felt like I was flying and the final 0.5miles, I felt good and strong and was well happy to come in at 2.02. It was fantastic, I had a brilliant run and didnt feel like i had had to battle with any of the course. had some great tunes on my mp3 player that kept me bopping away all round the course and really had to be very careful not to start singing very badly at some points. the randomness of my mp3 player made me chuckle alot as it mixed the foos with madonna, faith no more and the scissor sisters. caught up with folks at the finish and because they were all there miles before me, a lovely pint of lager was waiting for me. beer has never tasted so good, despite the now pouring rain. a truly top day out.

all i can say now is the hills are in my legs, i need to try and rest a little this week and bring on WP :)