Having done Chess Valley in 1hr30 in the dry hot summer I came back with Kall to try and attempt great friend Hugh's brilliant 1hr 22 - this time in sub zero temps and a course full of ice, slippy mud and freezing water.
Knowing the course a little the idea was the take advantage of the flatter and (hopefully) faster first few miles to try and get ahead of the FKT and then see if we could keep to a decent pace on the hillier and presumably muddier sections. Plan went pretty well. The start was very icy - some of kept hard and some just broke away giving way to nasty cold water puddles. These were unavoidable -so it was going to be a deep mud/trenchfoot run whatever happened
The fast pace kept some of the chill away and the arctic temps kept all but the hardiest of dog walkers away and the route mostly empty.
We navigated well. Just one mistake but sorted it out. All in all a great run with Kall.