Perfect preparation

for the second of Chepstow's championship races. Me and the Brown Dog hit the central Forest for a long run. At the planning phase the route was about 24k and designed to roughly follow the route of the Forest of Dean Half with a few additions. I should mention that it's another Chepstow Champs race so I'm sneaking in a recce.

Now you'd think the fact that I've never run the Forest Half might be an indication that there's potential for deviation - and you'd be right. I'm pretty sure I mostly hit the route but there was a bit of doubt on a couple of occasions. In the end in turned out to be a couple of miles long, weighing in at about 27k with 1,800 feet of ascent - and that's quite a bit more than I've done of late and I am suitably knackered - perfect prep for tomorrow's cross country, wouldn't you agree?

The run itself was fab. Crisp snow covered about half of the route, while nasty flush covered the rest. The snowy bits all added to the effort and I reckon were worth another half mile on top. Then at about half way I suddenly popped out of the woods and onto a more arterial track filled with loads of people. All jogging, stretching and warming up. Apparently it was some kind of oreinteering event and me and Mrs B piled through the middle - so I bagged myself a couple of checkpoints (or what ever they call them) - well, I didn't want to come last now, did I?

Then it was away from the hustle and bustle and off to complete the rest of the run. The only other moment of interest was coming upon a perfectly solid, reasonably newish looking gate across the middle of the track. No fence to go with it. Just a gate. I went around - as it was locked...

PS I am totally disconbobulated