First race in a year and I didn’t even do much race prep like I usually would for it.
A friend of mine asked if I wanted to do a trail run with her. Think this would have been her first trail run.
She pulled out last minute sadly due to illness but I decided to throw caution to the wind and go anyway.
The race started at 2pm. I got there around 1:15-1:30pm to get myself registered and into my trainers. Debated if I should wear a rain jacket or not as it had starteed to piss down just before I got out the car to go for a final wee break.
Stood in the court yard and started talking to some of the hardmoors lot that were up there. Got prewarned that the course is a little brutal.
As we were waiting for race brief, the sky decided to dump the most freezing cold rain down on us. Such a great start to a race that is when it absolute pisses it down before race start.
Starting the race off absolutely freezing in a vest and shorts, I started near to the front with lack of better judgement. Normally I start a bit further back so god knows what possessed me this time to start near the front.
To explain this course before we get into the nitty gritty with broken up segments. It is a 2 lap course of hills. Yes, hills. No real flat bits to recoup on so thats where the brutality came in.
1st lap felt a bit like a breeze. You start off on a downhill segment on the road, took this bit easy as I didn’t know what the rest of the course was like. Then you get into a bit of a midway slog. This looked flat but was gradualating up and down in a subtle way.
You get to a hill that isn’t too big, but steep enough, you have to work for it. I ended up running up it the first lap round, which may not have been a good idea, but felt like a good idea at the time.
You shoot back down, and then you come to the real testing part.
This hill isn’t as steep as the first but has 3 false peaks. I ended up intervalling it and then ran the last uphill segment of this three part hill.
You come up to a flat spot for the finish/2nd lap start, which was nice after that ascent.
You can definitely guess how lap 2 was going to go!
Ended up alright, then halfway through the 2nd round of slog, I ended up with some intervals in to make up for lack of speed in motion. Got scooped up by a lovely Easingwold club runner who gave me some breathing techniques. Actually helped and I felt a bit lighter on my feet!
Back to our steep hill and once again got so far till I enjoyed a bit of downhill.
I got to our 3 false peaks and intervaled up it again. This is a technique I got from another ultra runner to get through the hills that little bit quicker.
This is where I started to feel sick. When I mean sick, it was threatening to come up. I had a bridlington club runner behind me, and we were on the flat to the finish line.
My strange combo of stubbornness and grit outweighed the near puking, but I did try and push it to get something ahead.
Came in at 41st out of 81st over all and 7th female.
54:11 and 5:45 mins/km pace
Honestly, not too shabby for someone who has mostly retired from running races and didn’t train all that much!
Might do another small race again in the future, but this one was highly enjoyable with a proper metal medal and a free pint at the end supplied by the brewery.
LCW FITNESS 