The journey

Just a few weks after Morocco, we were off on our second weekend break. This was another easyjet flight but from Luton this time. The tour of all London airports was well and truly under way. We got to our hotel slightly before the room was ready so had a bit of a walk around. It looked like a great place for a summer trip but the pool was empty and probably had been for a while. We went to pick up the race number and explore Valetta before picking up some bread and bananas for breakfast and enjoying a carb-loading Italian dinner.

The race

The race was a point-to-point, starting in land and ending in Sliema, across the water from Valetta. We had to meet very early in the morning at the finish line to get on the buses to the start. The walk from the hotel was dark with a bit of rain, but it was only downhill from there. When we got off the bus, about an hour before the gun, it was absolutelyy pouring down. The start line was still being organised and there wasn't much in the way of cover as the start area was essentially just a petrol station. Like penguins we huddled together under the canope and those on later buses found refuge under overhanding shop roofs and anything else providing any sort of dry space. It was a long wait until 5 minutes before the start when I ran across to one of the portaloos (no queue, unsurprisingly) then chucked my bag in one of the vans going back down.

I was drenched through immediately and just tried to laugh my way through it. This, annoyingly, is what it's all about. Coming up against difficult challenges and finding a way through, whilst trying to enjoy it along the way. The start was uphill and we changed from penguins to salmon swimming up stream. After a misplaced step my left foot was completely submerged. Even so, my right foot was barely any drier.

The rain carried on for most of the race so I didn't get much in the way of photos or videos. The route wasn't the most entertaining in the world and it did double back on itself slightly incorporating the shorter distance races. It did begin to dry up towards the end and the last few miles were then much more enjoyable going past Valetta and then the boats on the way to Sliema. There were a lot of people out ins upport carrying us all to the finish line.

After the finish, there was a long queue to pick up my bag from the hotel wher ethey were being kept and my body really started to struggle just standing up. I debated heading back to the hotel and then coming back to pick it up after but decided that that was stupid. I eventually got it and was on my way back to the hotel, which was a little over a mile away. I was happy to be bag under (now unneeded) cover and able to sit down and tick off a very challenging run.