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This year’s Grizzly experience (13 th March 2016)<br />
Steve Claxton<br />
I approached the race a little apprehensively as I had not run well the day<br />
before and was worried that as a result a hard day was ahead. This was my<br />
4th attempt to run well here and so I knew what was coming.<br />
I started well and got to the first shingle section with people flooding past<br />
and 500 meters in I was worried as the legs felt tired. However unusually it<br />
was a nice sunny day and I was relaxed.<br />
Onto roads and I felt ok first mile done. Then the first hill and I started to get<br />
into my stride and go past people. Wiggling around the village a bit I kept<br />
going past people and felt better. Had a chat with a few people as we left<br />
Seaton and thought that life is not too bad.<br />
Coming up the big hill to Beer where I knew my wife and cousin would be<br />
waiting to cheer me on meant I pushed on to make sure I ran down the hill<br />
really fast to look good ( very vain I know). This worked well and I still felt ok,<br />
being cheered on by the crowd lifted me so much I ran to the caravan park<br />
quite fast.<br />
Next I started to prepare mentally for the river run in Branscombe, harder<br />
this time as you run through about 10 meters of it and it was cold, shingly<br />
and difficult underfoot. This bit always attracts a lot of people as they seem<br />
to like laughing as us poor runners struggling through the freezing water.<br />
The run turns to lots of tree lined hills with lovely countryside thrown in and I<br />
got into a rhythm with a few other runners who were steady. Keeping up<br />
with them on the hills was encouraging. I made sure as soon as the legs<br />
started to burn I walked. This worked well as I felt good and gained a few<br />
more places.<br />
8
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