Draycote 20 2017
September 24th 2017
20 mile run
I booked the Draycote 20 as a "warm-up" for the Birmingham Marathon, and it certainly was that.
The sun shone as we drove to the venue (after a 20 minute detour due to me having read B32 as B23 - oops!) and I was quite happy wondering around in a vest and t-shirt pre-race (always a bad sign!). Parking paid for I headed towards the start, then realised this was actually about a mile on, so I broke into a light jog. At this point, I realised that I still had a case of the sniffles - after having been ill the previous week - and my chest was putting up a bit of resistance too.
Dropping back to a walk once I had enough people behind me to be sure the race wouldn't start without me, I made my way to the start, and before long, we were off. I settled my HR in Z2, and had a fairly comfortable first lap (and a bit).
By lap 2 my HR was already starting to creep up, simultaneous to my pace dropping. This vicious cycle I find very hard to control, but given my state of health and the length and importance of this race, I opted to go for the "keeping HR in control" option rather than the "keep pace on target and let HR spiral".
Each lap was 5 miles, with once feed station and one water station. I'm not convinced this was adequate - in 20 degrees sunshine I was feeling very thirsty not far after each station. By the end of lap 2 (at about 10 miles) I was really starting to feel the impact of the run in my legs - with both hip flexors and ITBs complaining at me. Getting to the half marathon required me to dig deep, and as soon as I was past it my left calf was pulling too.
At about 15 miles I came around through the finish for the penultimate time, at a serious low point. I considered giving up (calf and chest were seriously protesting now) but having never DNF'd I didn't want to start a trend today, so I pushed on. After mile 16 the end started to come out of the infinite abyss it had been residing in, and I picked up a friend en-route. With just a parkrun to go, I knew I could make the end, despite the all-over tingling sensation (I think I need to eat more frequently than every 5 miles...) and leg pain. I let the HR go at about 18 miles, just wanting to get the thing done! Which I did, in a staggering fashion and not appreciating having to run an extra 0.06 miles because the course was short...
Would I do this again? Not sure, it was a very dull and unsupported course. Also, having a 10 mile race and 10k race *start* at the same time (and in the 10k case, behind so they all rush past) does nothing for motivation. I think I got lapped 9 times but 20 milers too :/
Times
Total time: 03:10:18
Standings
Age category: 11/36 31%
Gender category: 31/127 24%
Overall category: 156/295 53%
20 mile run
I booked the Draycote 20 as a "warm-up" for the Birmingham Marathon, and it certainly was that.
The sun shone as we drove to the venue (after a 20 minute detour due to me having read B32 as B23 - oops!) and I was quite happy wondering around in a vest and t-shirt pre-race (always a bad sign!). Parking paid for I headed towards the start, then realised this was actually about a mile on, so I broke into a light jog. At this point, I realised that I still had a case of the sniffles - after having been ill the previous week - and my chest was putting up a bit of resistance too.
Dropping back to a walk once I had enough people behind me to be sure the race wouldn't start without me, I made my way to the start, and before long, we were off. I settled my HR in Z2, and had a fairly comfortable first lap (and a bit).By lap 2 my HR was already starting to creep up, simultaneous to my pace dropping. This vicious cycle I find very hard to control, but given my state of health and the length and importance of this race, I opted to go for the "keeping HR in control" option rather than the "keep pace on target and let HR spiral".
Each lap was 5 miles, with once feed station and one water station. I'm not convinced this was adequate - in 20 degrees sunshine I was feeling very thirsty not far after each station. By the end of lap 2 (at about 10 miles) I was really starting to feel the impact of the run in my legs - with both hip flexors and ITBs complaining at me. Getting to the half marathon required me to dig deep, and as soon as I was past it my left calf was pulling too.
At about 15 miles I came around through the finish for the penultimate time, at a serious low point. I considered giving up (calf and chest were seriously protesting now) but having never DNF'd I didn't want to start a trend today, so I pushed on. After mile 16 the end started to come out of the infinite abyss it had been residing in, and I picked up a friend en-route. With just a parkrun to go, I knew I could make the end, despite the all-over tingling sensation (I think I need to eat more frequently than every 5 miles...) and leg pain. I let the HR go at about 18 miles, just wanting to get the thing done! Which I did, in a staggering fashion and not appreciating having to run an extra 0.06 miles because the course was short...
Would I do this again? Not sure, it was a very dull and unsupported course. Also, having a 10 mile race and 10k race *start* at the same time (and in the 10k case, behind so they all rush past) does nothing for motivation. I think I got lapped 9 times but 20 milers too :/
Times
Total time: 03:10:18
Standings
Age category: 11/36 31%
Gender category: 31/127 24%
Overall category: 156/295 53%
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