Two Castles Run – 2009
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)