_I know, am late writing up my diary. TG has been running and I've had to follow her! So down the rabbit hole and we go back in time....

25th December: 5K Run
It's the time of giving and today I thought I'd give TG a present. To be more giving! :-) So in today's 5K race, I pulled up my treads and allowed myself to slide along the ground. TG was happy to have completed the event in 40:41. Which means on the tyre league table, that places me in second position. TG was unusually happy. Hmm, perhaps I might try a little harder and beat the old gal Tam or my bro Rec who holds the top position at 36:57. We're not sure who holds the top position as most of us think it was Rec but he's in California and cannot confirm it was him and TG thinks it was Tam but Tam's a little off her treads now a days so she can't confirm either!

27 December 2011:
Christmas Challenge 26.6 Miles
TG was disappointed about the lack of snow this year, however having gorged herself on food for the last 2 days, TG was keen to run and I was in the mood to please!

The website directions to the venue were perfect and we received a warm welcome by Glen, the RD, who said he was so happy to see me. Of course I gave him a little shake of the ol' rubber ;-)

Now the race......what is wrong with the next set of pictures?

You'd never guess it was winter. Let me help you all remember Winter last year. The picture on the left is 18th December 2010. We had Arctic weather. In contrast this year it was a balmy 10 degrees Celcius. It was warm and TG took the opportunity to get her legs out for an airing! It was not only warm it was relatively dry. I enjoyed gliding on the ground. Yes I know, this also is in contrast when I got my treads stuck in the mud and leaves in the last marathon, but hey it's a new year and sometimes it's good to change. I've made a realisation that it's more fun to go fast. Perhaps a new year's resolution needs to be made to beat a couple of records made by Tam and Rec as long as TG can find her way. Sometimes it's a bit worrying when the sheep follow her. The blind leading the blind!

Speaking of navigation, this is the best TG has ever done on a self navigating trail marathon. 5-4-3-2-1 had excellent signage, but the large signs made it easy for hooligans to play a little havoc with the system. The signage on this race was subtly brilliant. Despite the signs having been put up 2 days before, it did not appear anything had been disturbed. This was all backed up with a route description that was exceptional. It would be great if more LDWA events used the style of the route instructions from this event. (TG does not trust signage due to past experiences with hooligan's changing signs around!).

TG seemed completely in control and for TG's 25th tyre dragging marathon, we completed the 26.6 mile event in 7 hours 55 minutes. TG was very happy at the end. Perhaps I should carry on being more giving ;-)

Collected £5 in donations. Thank you to everyone who donated, your donations will be going to Earthwatch.

Highlights:
A Doggy Tale: In the first mile and a half, a bull-terrier decided to goad me, pretending to attack me, yapping at me, telling me I was like a bicycle tyre. TG was on a mission, so we ignored him expecting him to return to his owner. He continued with us for a mile ducking into ditches scaring pheasants. TG tried to catch him and I tried to roll over him! Thankfully one of the participants managed to catch him and return him to his owner.

The Guardian Angel:
For a while TG appeared to have a guardian angel. The same participant that had returned the dog to its owner, finally caught up with TG and kept her in view in the first half of the event, always ensuring that at a turn she would see him, before he continued onwards. Heading towards mile 18, TG lost sight of her guardian angel, as she was distracted by two labradors who kept bringing us things!

Race Overview
Signage and route description: Excellent
Checkpoints: There were 4 checkpoints, 3 had water, the first two also had biscuits. The first one at 3 miles had gels. TG carried her own food and water.
Certificate at end
Event cost: £20