Sunday 3rd July
Back to the Bewlastic 15 - 2011 race. The weather was very warm today and no wind. The sun was shining and it was going to be another hot race. For the last couple of years the start/end of the race has been re-routed to avoid the stile. The disadvantage of this has been extending the race distance from 14.1 miles to 15.0 miles. I travelled to the race with my BF who had been chosen as an elite athlete and wearing race No. 1
. I was amongst the mere mortals having been given No. 610.
I did a steady warm-up on the field, 3 or 4 laps of the athletics track plus some stretching. I donned my sunhat and 'gafas de sol' hoping to remain anonymous but I was still recognisable by all - the Arena club vest was probably too much of a give away
. I joked with Henry (BF) that the only part of the race that he would see me was the uphill finish to the line so I said that I would take it slowly (walking) the whole way and sprint the finish to look impressive. I was determined to run steady for atleast 10 miles and then push on towards the end if I could, and the sprint finish was secretly my plan to look good at the end if it was possible on such a hot day with a lack of recent running miles in my legs.
So I set off mid pack, and kept to my plan starting steady. I didn't set my stopwatch as I didn't want to get stressed out by what pace I was running at. For the first few miles lots of people overtook me but I wasn't tempted to stay with them.
As I ticked off the miles I kept going at my steady pace and felt strong. At about 6 miles you could see the race leaders across the lake on their return - it looked like Henry was in 2nd place. At 10 miles I was thinking about trying to push on but kept going steady. People were beginning to slow down and struggle and I was starting to overtake them. We then hit the road surface and for the next 3 miles the rollercoaster ride of steep and long hills began. Up and down, up and down ...... I had forgotten about the severity of these hills and was so glad that I was feeling good. I managed to run up the hills whilst most were walking.
With 2 miles to go we were back on the dusty paths and the course had flattened out again. I knew that the last half a mile or so was going to be tough as it was uphill. As we did a left turn through a gate into a field I recognised the course from the start of the race. One long uphill in this field again saw many runners walking. This was then followed by the dusty/flinty uphill track to the finish. When I hit this track my pace increased and the sprint to the line thought returned. I was tired but I managed my sprint for the last 200m of the race. At the finish the Mayor greeted me and handed me her 'prize of the day' a Buff multifunctional headscarf. I grinned to myself - my sprint must have looked impressive and I must have looked fresh to catch her eye out of the other 600 runners
My time was 2 hr 05:37. Henry was 3rd in 1hr 32:13 (an outragously quick time!!)
