Time: 4:51:54
Distance: 25.71 (organisers say it's a bit over 26)
Pace: 11.21 (best 4.14 but I can't imagine when I can have gone that fast)
The start, at St Bede's School, and signalled in proper seaside manner by the firing of a maroon, was OK. As ever, I worried about having time to leave baggage and visit lavatory, but managed it in plenty of time. The start goes straight up a steep hill, and there is something of a debate as to whether one should run or walk it. For myself, I ran it, for it seemed to me psychologically important to start as one means to go on.
For the first half hour I felt a little odd, a touch feverish perhaps, but it was a hot day. A little way after the start there was a piper. The first hour took us over the downs towards Jevington and the other side of the village into Friston Forest where the paths were muddier and slippery than last year. I remained upright, but not everyone did. Then the route ascended to the top of Windover Hill above the Long Man: this looks forbidding when seen for the bottom, but was not too taxing. I missed the long-horned goats I had seen grazing in this area last year. The views were not as lovely as they can sometimes be as it remained overcast (the sun waited until the afternoon to come out, which was perhaps not a bad thing).
Then the descent into Alfriston, where, as elsewhere there were a number of enthusiastic spectators. The ascent out of Alfriston is a hill I often run, but I always find it difficult, but perhaps more so on a hot July day. The route then went to High and Over for another drinks station, with Mars bars and bananas, then out towards the sea, skirting the Seaford golf club and Frog Firle. Here I had some difficulty last year, but this year I managed well. I was doing ten-minute miles for these stages of the race.
Then the route went down to cross the Cuckmere and to a refreshment point in Litlington, where I enjoyed a bun, them up to Friston forest and through West Dean. There are two flights of steps in this stretch which were taxing; the piper had found his way to the second flight of steps beyond West Dean. Then to Exceat and on to the Seven Sisters: this is the most taxing part of the course and I'm sorry to say that here I started to walk up the hills, running down them. My knee, which I had bandaged, was by now starting to hurt, but this being the twenty mile point, I was not going to stop. The bandage seemed to have had the effect of delaying the onset of the pain and making it more bearable one it did start. Th Seven Sisters were difficult as ever; I have run them while fresh, and even then they're hard. The ascents and descents follow one another very quickly, the hills are steep and there are places where one thinks one is nearly at Birling Gap, only to find yet another Sister to be climbed. Then after the last drinks point there route avoids Belle Tout, skirting round the back before the ascent of Beachy Head and then down to the finish. As I came down to the finish the announcer, who was reading out people's names and race numbers as they came home, neglected to mention my name but did, noticing my bandage, tell the crowd that "here comes 464; looks like his knee has held up"
There was no wall, no dark night of the soul; some pain in knees and hips, stiffness and soreness afterwards, and it was impossible to find a comfortable sleeping position. The training had not been without setbacks, apart from the fiasco of the Jog Shop Jog, there was also back trouble in August which lost men some time. And I still think I didn't do enough long runs, or speed work.
So the question becomes, what next? I have some shorter races lined up: the
Brighton 10K and the
Mince Pie Ten Mile; in the New Year there'll be the
Sussex Beacon and
Hastings Half Marathons. I have an entry in for
London, but if unsuccessful I need another spring marathon, over a flat surface, on which to break the four hour barrier.
There are
photos on Flickr
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