Just to say thank you again to everyone - my first race was brilliant - really good fun - lovely people - fantastic course, great mix of terrain, enough mud for me and I even ended up nearly knee deep in a bog hole - it caught me by surprise and was all soft and squishy and made the most delightful noises - lovely.

I feel a little bit sore today, one or two new pains, but nothing really.

Taking the advice of just getting used to it, I carried full kit as suggested and, thanks to Brett who pointed them out, learned that the omm bum bag thingy has compression straps! Who knew - not me obviously hehehe pulling them down to the little hooks at the bottom reduced the contents to almost nothing - a much better fit - I hardly knew I had it on.

The bus from Hebden to Oxenhope worked well - £4.50 return so not too crazy, and the busses themselves are brand new, super posh and actually very nice!! I know this is not the norm, but in this case it worked perfectly.

I left my bag with change of clothes in the pub as suggested. All good.

Thank you!