The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

Well, it was with quite some enthusiasm that I lined up at the start of this race on a windy and wet February morning. I know I've been training pretty well and I was hoping for a far better experience than my last running of this race. I've done it twice before, but not at all in the last few years. The first time I did I found it okay, hard and hilly but manageable. The second time it all went very wrong. It's raced over lunchtime and I got my nutrition badly wrong, bonked in a major way and spent rather too much of the race in a world of pain and general misery - I dragged myself around it. So, as you can see, it wasn't asking for much that it be better than that!

My main issue this morning was trying to decide what to wear, thankfully I think I got it right in the end. I went for the long sleeved top and waterproof jacket option, I started off with gloves and an ear covering, but they came off quickly and I found that my cap was enough, even on the windier parts of the course. I wore running tights as they are better when wet, no nasty wet clothing flapping around your legs - I did end up with the zip of one rubbing a little. Ever so slightly painful when I got in the shower later, but not the end of the world.

I tried to start quite near the back, I didn't want to hold anybody up and was determined to stick to my race plan no matter what anybody else was doing. I wanted to race the whole thing using run 9 minutes then walk 1 as that's what I plan to do at the end of the Vitruvian, so, some race specific training. No doubt it looked a bit weird stopping for a walk break around the 1 mile marker, but as things played out it was clearly worth doing. I felt I was running well, I felt in control, I knew I was making an effort but it wasn't feeling overly hard either. I could tell by when the mile markers were coming around that I wasn't losing time as a result of my walk breaks. I was really pleased to see that the time wasn't slipping away and I was gradually making ground up over the people in front of me and picking places off as I went along. I found I was able to run pretty strongly up the hills and made good use of the down hills to allow gravity to give a bit of a helping hand - good plan! I also used my walk breaks to ensure I avoided any nutrition issues, taking a mouthful of food each time and making sure I got a few swallows of water too.

The weather wasn't bad in the end either. Some blustery bits on the more exposed sections of the course, some light rain, but nothing too heavy. My hands were cold by the end, but I could have put my gloves on if things had been too bad, so, clearly they weren't. I completed the race in 2 hours and ten minutes. I was very pleased with that, 10 minute miling including walk breaks. Also, a full ten minutes faster than my best previous running of the race. Fantastic. All in all, a good experience and a well organised race that I would recommend to anybody who doesn't mind the hills - there were a lot of them!