A lovely still and sunny day. Should have been a fast one.
However.... ahem. pre-race preparation was running 11 miles on Saturday. As some of you already know I'm running a half marathon in october for Great Ormond St Hospital and have been meaning to get some training runs in... so finally did one on saturday. And as Mr Instone said "well that was a bit stupid wasn't it"
anyway, rocked up at the start feeling pretty good and off to a storming start, just gotta love that ski jump.
Pretty steady run, although no minute man to chase so just me and the bike computer. good pace down to the first turn, keeping the average nice and high, gaaaah - and a car at the r-bout. had to come to a complete stop as he dithered around it. grrr. ok back onto it. and still not going so bad really.
Back up the first drag to the turn and onto the "lumpy bits" and this is where it started to fall apart just after the first lump. Have done this course a few times now and thought I'd got the hang of when to push and when to rest, but really started to feel the lack of energy now. The legs were turning but the speed was dropping. First time I've considered stopping and turning for home during a TT
. But heigh-ho it's still a long way back now I might as well keep going, after all it's only the ups that are hard, there's still some downs. oh well up and down, up and down. Made the top turn and actually felt a bit of power coming back and the speed getting back up too. homeward bound. Although all my early time and speed now had been wiped out with my middle slump.
Final corner and it's just the climb up to the finish, so completely bury myself. and over the line.
1:06:01. sigh.
oh well, not too bad considering. Previous best was 1:06.20 so at least it wasn't slower, although given the conditions should have been able to shave a decent chunk off that without the ill advised jogging exploits.
and Ben did it in 52
