Woodstock 12

Blenheim Palace Saturday 18th September 2010.

In June, some of my brothers and sisters bought Julie and I vouchers for a massage and spa day as a part of my 50th birthday present. Julie was looking at all the places where we could use the vouchers and one of them was in Banbury, Oxfordshire. With a little more researching she found that there is a twelve mile race held in nearby Woodstock in the grounds of the beautiful Blenheim Palace. She entered me for the race and booked the hotel and spa day for the two of us. We had taken a tour of the house and grounds earlier in the year. I looked at the grounds and gardens on that visit and thought it might make a nice venue for the Euro-Runners to run the 1911 World Wide Festival Of Races. The race for me on this day was three laps of four miles all within the grounds which avoided roads and traffic. We couldn’t have chosen better weather. It was warm when the race started at 2:00pm and cooled down by the last lap. With it being three loops we passed water stations five times so I just took a gulp of water at each stop. I found the undulations quite difficult and with each lap I was dreading the uphill climbs more and more. On my third lap I was struggling for almost all of it and had to slow down. The winners flew past me at a great lick which gave me a little inspiration to speed up but not for long. I finished at 1:51:47 satisfied that I could not put any more energy into the finish because I had no energy left. I don’t know about the other runners out there. But, when I have enough left in me to put on a spurt at the finish I’m left feeling that maybe I didn’t run hard enough earlier in the race. Anyway, I really enjoyed the day and looked forward to the following day where I would get my massage and laze around for the rest of the day in the Steam Room, Sauna, Jacuzzi and swimming pool, Steam Room, Sauna, Jacuzzi and swimming pool, Steam Room, Sauna, Jacuzzi and swimming pool, Steam Room, Sauna, Jacuzzi and swimming pool. You get the idea.