Lost and Last

I’ve spent the last two hours, looking all over the house for my trail shoes.

Pink trail shoes on my feet — If found, please return

How can a pair of hot pink (when they’re not muddy) trainers get lost in a small three-bedroomed house that, in my mind, isn’t overly cluttered. Evidently, we’re going to have to bring forward the spring cleaning.

I was trying to find the shoes for the second race in the Wirral Multi-Terrain series, and right now it’s looking like my old road shoes are going to have to do. I missed the first because of my Half last Sunday which extended into a mini holiday around north Wales for a few days.

Life was so much easier when I just stuck to one pair a year, and generally, stuck to tarmac. But since I’ve been introduced to the trails, and occasionally, the fells, my excitement for running has returned, but with that comes a need for extra kit.

This series, of four races, are a brilliant introduction to off-roading, given that they’re fairly short – between 7.5 and 10k – they’re local, and they don’t really require you to have any new fancy trainers, so long as you’re okay with them getting a bit wet and muddy.

I’ve not actually taken part in previous years because of my worries of falling flat on my face, or falling on my backside, or twisting my ankle, etc. But since I dipped my toe into cross-country last year, I’ve kind of caught the bug.

UPDATE: shoes found, in a box, in the garage. All is good, although that garage really needs some Marie Kondo love.

I was chatting to two of the women booked in on the races, who were worrying about the volunteers having to wait for them, because they were last and 5/10 minutes behind the previous person. Having been last in a few races myself, I know how they felt, but also, having volunteered in a few of these, I’ve only ever heard one person get annoyed, but then he wanted to get back to the days when there were only 50 blokes racing, as opposed to 300+ men, women and teens giving it their all. Every other volunteer I’ve met has never had a problem, and, in reality, it’s quite emotional watching people of all abilities getting out there and going for it.

Granted there will be races where there are some time limits, due to roads re-opening, or light and weather factors, but those limits are publicised beforehand and you know where you stand. I know I want to do more off-road running, and I really can’t wait for the cross-country season, where I’ll inevitably be one of the last ones in again. In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying these September runs, as they showcase some lovely parts of the Wirral. And, yes, I’ll be in my hot pink shoes.