43. The One Where I Went To Cornwall

1 October 2015

Here I am, down in Cornwall!  I'm actually writing this in Word because I've got no interwebs down here, so sadly all my posts will be uploaded together when I get back to London.

I stuck to the plan this morning – got up, did a yin/restorative session off YouTube which was just what I needed (I'm currently finding Yoga By Candace the best channel to relax and stretch me).  After a quick breakfast of cheese scones (it was meant to be porridge but it turned out I fancied cheese scones instead haha), I set about loading up my car.  As well as my suitcase, which was brimfull, I also had a couple of those hessian Whole Foods bags – one with shoes, one with pillows and sheets.  With all that and my foam roller sticking out the top, I was not the picture of a lean mean efficient ultra machine!  Luckily my Mini has seen far worse so he took it in his stride (you can fit far more in a Mini than you might think, I can tell you!) and we set off to Cornwall. 

I'd been kind of dreading the drive – my car is fourteen years old and he's never driven as far as Cornwall before, and I hadn't ever been further west in England than Bath, so I wasn't sure how either of us would like seven or eight hours of driving down.  However it really wasn't that bad at all!  We stopped a couple of times enroute but managed to avoid getting stuck behind too many tractors, which meant that I rocked up exactly on time at 17:00. 

 Having driven almost as far again down the driveway (I swear it's a good couple of kilometres at least, if not miles), I finally managed to park up and get to race reception.  I was issued with my meal tickets and caravan key and hopped over to my new home to settle in.  

I tell ya what – I'm super glad I'm not sharing my caravan!  It's very cute but it's, um, bijou … shall we say …!  My suitcase just about fits in the "second bedroom" and the bed takes up the entirety of my room.  It does have a tv though which means – phew – that I can watch Bake Off:  Extra Slice tomorrow.  It's a big relief.  

I took a few minutes out to take some pictures of the sunset – it was gorgeous tonight so I'm holding the weather to the whole "red sky at night, shepherd's delight" thingy and if the weather isn't good tomorrow, I shall find someone to have killed about the matter. 

Once I'd unpacked my life, it was time for supper.  Supper was AMAZING!  Sausage and mash, meat stew, veggie stew and then apple and raisin crumble for dessert.  In the name of research – obviously – I tried some of each of them and I can tell you that they were LOVELY!  I am the only one that I've seen so far who's here alone – everyone else has brought reinforcements.  Luckily I've already met the most ADORBS couple called Francis and Penny so I've at least got two friends!  

We had a really nice time at supper, and Francis has done quite a few ultras before so he was really good about reassuring me and giving me tips.  Everyone else has done at least a marathon and mostly they've done multiple ultras and/or multi-day events, so I'm also the only one who hasn't done anything like this before, but everyone seems really lovely.  It was a bit unnerving though when everyone was chatting about all the events they'd done before (not, I have to stress, in a showy-offy or arrogant way, just simply chat with people in common) so I'm super-nervous about tomorrow!  I'm pretty certain I'm going to come in last each day, which is fine as long as I can get through it ... that's all I ask haha!  Initially my goals were to finish it and not to come in last, but I've readjusted that goal down after hearing about everyone's experiences at supper.  I'm definitely the least experienced person on this course judging by the slightly shocked looks I got when I said I'd only done a half marathon!

We all headed off early to mong though, so I'm currently sitting on my mini-sofa watching QI and trying not to think about tomorrow.  It's a 06:00 kick-off for breakfast and briefing so night-night!