The day didn't start particularly well. Left home and turned on my Garmin to acquire whirly satellite things and the battery was flat. Too late to do anything about it so drove to the Forest thinking about a) how I would time myself and b) what I would do without knowing my pace and therefore losing my ability to pace myself sensibly. Anyway, I then spilled coffee down the front of my fleece.
The race itself was not only GPS-less, it was hilly, muddy and much tougher than I thought it would be. Back to pacing myself well the plan was to hit about 6.45 pace for the first 5 miles, then up a gear to 6.30 pace for miles 5-10 and then as fast as possible for the final 3. At mile 3 I met up with Dave and asked what mile pace we were at, the answer was 6.20 / 5.45 / 6.30 for the first 3 miles. Ok mile 2 was a bit downhill but 5.45! Crazy pace. I got into a reasonable rhythm until about mile 7 when I started flagging a bit. A second wind at mile 9 saw a reasonable few miles but final mile to the finish was a killer. I already knew my toes were a mess and it was becoming really painful to run. The final mile was straight, muddy and uphill.
Broke the tape in 1hr 29 which, considering everything was pretty pleasing (anything under 1hr 30 is fine with me). On closer inspection of my feet I had a blood blister the size of a 2pence piece and two cut toes where the nail had been cut a bit too short.
All in all a pretty good run, I know I can go faster than that though - need some better training!
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