I hadn't originally planned on doing this, as I was planning on being wrecked from the Lakeland 100 for at least 10 days. Well, that didn't go to plan, so my recovery was a load quicker. Legs started feeling good again by Tuesday, but strangely my back wasn't. Not sure exactly what I did, but all of the muscles in the top of my back were as tight as, and causing me massive problems whilst running. So much so that my first run, I could only raise a jog when anyone could see me. And walked when they couldn't. So todays race was starting to look doubtful.
5 days solid of slightly increasing runs, and massaging Antiflam cream into my back finally got me to a place where I could run again. The final test was Saturday afternoon's 5 mile run. If I could hammer that, I felt confident I could do the 12 mile run today. My run went well, slight pain on the flats, but manageable, less pain on the ups, but on the downs I had to throttle back, as it hurt too much. So I entered.
Sunday morning shoe dilemma - what to wear. Plumped for the Hoka One One Rapa-Nui. Feeling the love for this shoe at the moment. 60 miles out of the box at the L100, perfect. Would they handle a faster pace, though, as my previous (Combo XT's) couldn't. Well...
Arrived at the Longshaw Estate, registered, then got ready to start. Now, this trail race is slightly different, in that for the 12 mile route, you can start any time between 8:15 and 9:30, which brings in it's own set of challenges. If you are running alone, it's easy to lose focus and button off slightly. You don't have leaders to follow, to keep you pushing. You don't know how you have done relative to everyone else when you finish.
Anyway, had a chat to a few people, got my excuses in early just in case my back really went awol, then switched on the Garmin, to get ready to go. Plan was simple - maintain a pace as fast as I could without my back hurting, and don't get passed. Simple.
Strava link here
Off. From Longshaw, the route went to Burbage Bridge, following the path under Burbage rocks, made quite good time along here, then across the road to go up to Stanage Edge, and on to the rough stuff. Absolutely love running over the rough stuff, and kept on cranking along here, passing people, until the turn off at the Long Causeway,down to Hathersage. Lovely descent, Hokas soaking up enough of the shock to keep me moving at a decent pace downhill, although nowhere near as fast as I am capable of. Into Hathesage, and I catch up with a bloke in Merrell Road Gloves. Hard not to think of them as the "Other Side", whilst wearing Hokas! We kept pace with each other to the checkpoint/water station at the Derwent River. He dibbedand ran, I downed 2 cups of water and an orange High Five gel. Onwards.
The second half of the race follows the river to Nether Padley, then up to the top of Haywood, before dropping back to the top of Nether Padley, back up to Longshaw Estate then into the finish.
I set off in pursuit of Mr Merrell, catching as soon as we came to a section of track with tree roots - I glided over them, not breaking stride, whilst he had to mince carefully through. Back recovered from the downhill pounding, so I started pushing along a bit faster. Lovely trail along the river, then all too soon it was time to turn uphill - I maintained my effort, but slowed a little, Mr Merrell, pushing me on faster. I ran most of the way to the top of Haywood, but needed a bit of power-hiking near the top. A nice fast downhill to the top of Nether Padley township, the up again, forcing my legs to keep running as we climbed. This is definitely an area I need to work on - I can see a horrendous amount of squats for me in my future!
Into Longshaw Estate, only 2.5km to go. On to the main path,then foot down to the finish. Except there was a sneaky uphill to Little John's Well. Back to a jog-shuffle to get to the top of that! Then down the final stretch and the finish, hammering, dibbed, done.
Managed to complete the race in 1:32:57, which was about 15 minutes faster than I thought I would! Decided to hang around to 11am, by which time anyone who was going to beat me would be in..and both of them were! Lee Rawson managed to get me by 45 seconds or so,and another guy got me by 4 minutes (if my back was ok...) so I managed 3rd overall, but, as they were both vets, snuck 1st Senior Male. Happy days. (Results still not officially confirmed, but pretty sure I'm right).
Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon series, race 3 next weekend. Currently in 1st place in that, with good route choice, hopefully I can keep it there!
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