In anticipation that it may actually be warm enough for bare legs, I went over to see Jo and Heather a week or so ago to hunt out that mystical pair of running shorts that would not make me look like a woolly mammoth. Not unexpectedly, running shorts are usually designed to suit folks that run and it seems quite difficult to get the right fit if you are rather strapping of thigh like many cyclists (including me) tend to be. After much girlie faffing and trying on by me, Heather very patiently helped to find my perfect match - the Pearl Izumi Splices.
The weather for race day turned out to be gorgeous and the whole event itself was extremely well organised by local club Amazingfeet.
In my heyday I was a not-too-shabby club runner and although my heyday is now getting on for a couple of decades and almost a stone lighter ago, I do clearly remember the pain of going through the first mile marker way too fast.
Restraint early on was clearly the order of the day as looking at the course map it indicated the first two miles or so were more or less downhill followed by two miles or so of VERY muddy bridleway, then another couple of miles of up and down and finally about two miles uphill to the finish. So that’s all that stood between my finishers goody bag and me. Mmmmm.
The downhill start was taken nice and steady and the muddy section we were warned about at the start turned out not to be that gruesome and once I got to the water station at around half way I was feeling not too bad. I’ve no idea how you’re actually meant to drink out of those little cups full of water whilst actually running, I must have lost half of it down my shorts.
Next was the mostly uphill half - I had done the long climb to the finish many times on my bike so pretty much knew what to expect - pacing is key unless you want to die a horrible death. In the end it was not quite as painful as I was expecting (maybe as I found a totally new dimension of pain from my MTB race season last year!!) and as a bonus I also managed to finish 13 minutes inside my pre-race target.
Waiting at the finish was my beloved Mr M poised to take the always-unflattering post-race drool-faced photo (see above). I placed an unexpected 4th in the F45 category whilst he’d had a rather great day in the office scooping 7th overall, the M40 trophy and men’s team trophy!
Next stop is back on the bike at Coed-y-Brenin for the Welsh XC Series this weekend. After two years of endurance only racing it will be my first short course XC race since 2005 and I’ve got a sneaky feeling that it’s going to hurt….
