Snowy sunny marathon - phew!

On Friday, along with the snow came an email from the organiser of the 'Stansted Stagger' marathon, saying that it had been cancelled. I was disappointed, but Roger Biggs (chairman of the 100 Marathon Club) was even more keen to complete a marathon at the weekend - he was going for a marathon every week of 2009 and had managed 50 so far...

So a new event, "Roger's Stansted Snow Slog" popped onto the race calendar at very short notice. We had the route description from the stagger and arranged to meet at 9am in Stansted Mountfitchet to complete the pretty, off road course. About a dozen or so of us turned up and I ran with Heather again. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the fields of snow looked stunning. We were later joined by Neil and Simon (who took the photos) and enjoyed chatting away the hours managing not to get lost (quite a feat given that we couldn't see things like the 'wide muddy track' or the 'sandy path' as everything just looked like more white). As it mostly wasn't too deep, nor too icy, the snow actually made the terrain easier going than the mudfest it may otherwise have been.
We finished, still smiling, in 5 hours 18 minutes. It felt very special. Maybe because it was so peaceful out in the snow, maybe because we were pleased to be running after the initial cancellation. A great way to spend Sunday anyway.