With only a couple of weeks to go until my "big" autumn race – the Royal Parks half marathon – I was hoping to put in a really hard week's training. So of course I came down with a dreadful cold. On my long run yesterday, I sounded like Darth Vader on a treadmill. Felt about as nimble as I would wearing a coal scuttle on my head, too.
For some reason that started me thinking (well, it distracted me from the joy of a 13-mile progressive run) of running in fancy dress.
Has anyone done it? I don't mean just some different colours or a silly hat – I'm talking about those people who complete entire marathons dressed as a rhinoceros in a costume that looks as if it weighs about 4 tonnes. Hats off to them, it must be quite a feat. It's hard enough running just over 26 miles but to do it in something that definitely doesn't count as "breathable fabric" and weighs the same as you is amazing. And requires, I imagine, a whole different type and level of training. I saw a woman running down the towpath yesterday dragging a tyre behind her, and I wondered if maybe that's what she was doing.
So, have you done the full-on costume-for-charity event? Would you consider it? And do you have any tips for how I can get rid of what sounds increasingly like my death rattle?
