Ros & Pete

This race was my first delve into the world of fell racing in 2009 so for 2010 I was keen to see how much, if any, improvement I had made.

Feeling a little tight in the hamstring area, I opted not to enter the Gloucester League XC on the Saturday, and coupled with a fairly light week of training I was fairly well tapered, at least by my normal standards.

Warm up felt slow and heavy and I was surprised how hard the ground was. This, I thought, was a good thing as last year it was very muddy and slippy. Ok so I had better shoes this time in the form of my Inov-8 Mudclaws but still it was going to be less energy taxing.

We lined up on the start line and were set off by some chap shouting “Go!”

The route crosses a couple of fields, over a road, and then into the forest. Climbing gently all the way caused the field to soon thin out so nothing overly eventful occurred.  A turn right onto a fire track led onto the first downhill. Looking around, it soon became apparent who was a road runner and who was a “felly” type. The road runners seemed to be doing big long jumpy strides, whereas the people with more fell experience seemed to be opting for shorter strides but a much higher cadence.  I feel that this became a key feature on some of the steeper descents later in the race.

The course meanders through the woodlands for about a further mile before crossing a stream and the first proper climb begins.  In 2009 this climb nearly broke me, however having now done worse in other races I felt it could have been run-able if it wasn’t for the steady stream of walkers ahead of me.

Lots of steady tracks and fire roads followed and allowed a few quicker people to pass me, however knowing the pipes were approaching, I wasn’t worried as I knew I could make up the ground and more.

The first pipe arrived and it was a lot longer than I recalled, bonus!

 Down

 Up

 Down

Up

 Down

 Up

…and about 10 places made up.  

More tracks meant a few places were again lost to quicker people, but I was still further up the field and heading towards the water point

A brief walk at the water point to save choking and onto the last big climb. A frustrating climb that’s not quite steep enough to justify walking, but equally steep enough to feel frustrated at how slow I was able to run. The people around me seem to be suffering a little more so I managed to pick off a place or two.

The final decent should have been a lot, lot quicker than it ended up being. I was still able to pass people, however the ground was incredibly icy which meant every few steps I’d ski down on my heels.

In 2009 I found I was making up time on the flat, and then loosing it on the down hills and climbs, however being further up the field I felt that it had reversed mainly down to confidence and experience in descents

 Final results 1:22:05 for 32^nd. Around 14 minutes quicker than last year so happy with that.

 Splits and details can be viewed here.

 Photos from Fell Running Pictures

Result from last year: 0:57:47
Current 10k PB: 0:46:30

My target for this race was around 0:46:00 but I have had a fairly hard week with another 10k race last Thursday which saw me get 47.22 on a fairly hard multi terrain course.

After having helped out on my mums boat yesterday I stopped the night at hers, and seeing as the race was 2miles down the road It made sense.
A fairly restless night saw me wake up at 0430, 0500, 0547 and 0643 despite the bed being fairly comfy. I guess the fear of oversleeping was making my paranoid so I gav up trying to sleep any more and got into the shower.
Upon waking my stomach felt a bit squiffy, nothing major just a tad acidic so I decided I best get my brekkie fairly soon… at the very least should settle my stomach a bit. It didn’t really and semi-skimmed milk instead of the skimmed that im used to seamed to add to the sicky feeling. In the end I forced it down and then reached for the water and just prayed that 2.5hrs would be enough time to settle it down.

I left the house at 0800 and walked the 3miles from the house down the canal to the start which saw me arrive at around 0845. A 1000 start so plenty of time.
A few people milling around so I thought I would take the opportunity to christen the nice fresh port-a-loos … quite nice port-a-loos for the record as well :p

I had a wonder around the school grounds, it was the same as last year but it at least gave me something to visualise for when things are getting tuff.

I located the changing rooms which were a classroom with blinds pulled shut. The school is a first school so I guess 5yr- 8yr ish, but three things struck me…
1. How tiny the desk/ chairs are.
2. How it was fairly random that they had a display on the wall for “The 1960’s”
3. How cute it was that there was steps in front of the white board for the iccle sprogs to  reach the top.

Anyway I got changed and handed my bag in. This allowed me a good 10-15mins to warm so I went through my usual routine of some sprints, bum kicks, and strides.

I never really remember that much about my runs so apologies if this is a bit sketchy..

The route was pretty simple.. two 5km loops.
Head off towards the town, turn left onto the ring road, head towards the A34, turn left, head to the A51 junction., turn left, and then turn left again back towards the start.
The only difference was on the second lap, the last little bit when they cut a corner off, and then finish on the school playing field.

There wasn’t any chip times, so it was very cramped at the start with everyone trying to get as close to the front as possible. Everyone crowded onto the road ready for the start… the whistle went and we were off…

Pretty un-eventful first 2-3 km’s trying to keep a good pace going, without going too hard and blowing up. I dropped in behind a younger chap and decided to follow. There was another chap running along with him and I quickly realised that he was acting as a pacer. The pacer bloke kept whizzing off, stopping.. taking pics of the younger chap so I assume he was a fairly handy runner. I overheard him say that the young lad was on target for 45mins… despite wearing my garmin, ive stopped looking at it in races, so whilst it was good to hear he (I) was on target, I didn’t really want to know.

Turning back towards the start to finish the first lap the crowds picked up a bit, which having my name printed on my vest following the marathon I could lots of “Go Peeeteee” , “ dig deep” etc which always seams to wake me up a bit as I tend to loose focus if left on my own.

5km.. had to slow to get water, which I then proceeded to choke on, although it was nice to see a race where rather than giving you a full cup or a full bottle.. it was a
plastic cup with about an inch in at the bottom.. a perfect amount IMO!!

Again nothing major to report 5-7km.. I was still in touch with the 45min chappy from above although his mate had disappeared but I kept plodding.

8km I started to get a twinge of stitch. Nothing major, but just enough to by that fear of dread into me,  im not sure if it was this, or a slight climb that saw my average pace for this KM drop from around the 4.35min -  to 4.47 not a huge slow down, but still an extra 12 seconds. During this km my 45min pacer chappy had started to creep away from me. I didn’t really stress too much as although I wasn’t going sub45, I was fairly sure it would be a PB.

Turning the corner back towards the school and finish I see 45min chappy stood at the side chucking up.. I know it will sound harsh and I don’t know why but I couldn’t help chuckle to myself (between trying to catch my breath)

I tried to kick slight to the finish but my body wasn’t having it.. in the end I was just glad to reach the finish.

Official results….

… *huzzah!*

Im not one to usually do a race report, but i though i would give it ago,
This was my first ever race last year, so i felt that i had to enter it, even if it was the week after my first marathon..
Woke up on the morning and it was raining… not just normal rain but really heavy big blobby stuff…*bugger*.. ahh well its just going to be a training run with a tshirt at the end i kept telling myself.

We got to Warwick fairly early, parked up and I donned a suitable fetching bin bag, prior to walking over to the castle. Ros was with me but wasn’t running which meant I had someone I could throw a jumper to prior to the start.

A marshall shouted that the race started from within the castle, so we were sheppared out into the courtyard, but everyone was stood sheltered under the portcullis of the castle trying to keep out of the rain, which seeing as we were about to go off and run seamed a bit crazy… but at least it was warm.
Eventually we walked out from the shelter down to the start pens. I tried to say hello to a club member, but ended up swallowing and nearly choking on my chewing gum. I could feel the minty freshness stuck in my throat somewhere, so I started to try and cough it up… no such luck..

As we were walked down to the start line, a lot of slower people joined from the side, this basically meant that 60min+ people were stood with the 35-40min people which made pacing later a real pain.

Hooter went so we go forward, body felt ok with me passing quite a few of the slower runners that joined the pens from the side. This made it hard to judge speed as i was constantly passing people that should not have that far forward.
I passed a club member early on who Im usually ahead of and carried along at what I felt was a fair pace. I wasn’t wearing my garmin so not sure on splits, but I feel the first 3km went quickly, very quickly… in fact.. too quickly… *DAMMIT*
I went from full of energy to very little energy/ heavy legged very very quickly as soon as i put it under load going up the hill into Leek Wooten. I knew there was a downhill bit soon so just keep going.
I don’t really remember much of the next 3-4km other than I was hanging on.. and one big hill around the 6km point. Last year this hill beat me, making me walk whilst being passed by batman and robin, I was determined to make it this time so just dug deep and powered to the top.
I was just getting my breath back when I heard Ros cheering me on… she was stood out in the rain waiting for me, so once again I dug deep and pressed on to the 7km mark.
By this point we were onto our normal club circuit, so I focused on thinking that these are roads that ive been running at least once a week for the past 12month and I can doit, but my pace was starting to drop off now, and a lot of the people I passed earlier were coming back at me.. just keep going I thought.

The club member I passed earlier, caught me up around the 9 – 9.5km point and could see that I was starting to really struggle. I know she’s a WPC and so have a very intimidating and commanding voice, especially when she started screaming down my ear to get my finger out and get on with it. It helped I picked up and managed the glory sprint down the finish straight, at the very least I sped up to get away from the noise (I must remember to thank her next time I see her).

Overall I definitely noticed not being fully recovered yet, and in the snotty nose didn’t help, added together with swallowing my chewing gum just before the start.
Lots of support from our club on route and also having my name on my vest from last week’s marathon meant that lots of people were cheering me on which kept me going.
Final result : 00:47:42 chip time (391st out of 2419)