Since I posted the blog about my first three club runs - I've done two more in fairly quick succession, Sunday 30 July (Seven Stiles) and then Wednesday 2 August (Highdown Hike).
Me trailing Mark Wilson and sporting jaunty new hat
Seven Stiles over in Henfield runs along the river Adur and has a grand total of 2 stiles (five have seemingly disappeared). It's largely flat with some gentle rises - and just 6k. So I thought I'd lose no time on race tactics and just run it. Indeed such was my unconcernedness about the times, I did a gentle Sunday Twitten Run at 9am, resisting the urge to chase CC5 up the streets, before driving over to Henfield for 11am start. A large Lewes AC turnout meant our attendance points were in the bag, and the speedy front runners meant lots of 10s and 9s for those finishing in the top 2 deciles.
Rain in previous days had threatened to turn river banks into mud, and we were warned that the other paths were puddled. I hadn't got on with the flat of the beach run and was pleased to find the route had enough undulation in it to create some gentle ups and downs. I quickly found myself alongside two runners who normally outpace me (including my target man from the beach run) and trotted along with them for a bit. Then feeling myself quite comfortable I pressed on and moved ahead of them. A short while later I saw Lewes AC runner Nick Williams limping off assisted by another club member, which was a little distressing.
Hitting the flat along the river (and the two stiles) I pushed on, knowing that I find the flat stuff dull/slow, and expecting at any moment to be caught by club colleagues. The final section back was interesting as I kept being overtaken by and then overtaking one Saints and Sinners runner which may have speeded me further. And in the last section I hit a nice sprint finish. Results showed that I had come in around 2 minutes faster than I could have expected 30:30 rather than the 32:30 I'd predicted. I concluded that the twitten run had warmed me up and the mid-race lethargy I experience may in part be down to starting cold each time.
The Highdown Hike run on Weds evening was preceded by a day-long deluge - and contrary to my expectation from looking at maps turned out to be quite hilly (though not on scale of Caburn/Kingston Ridge). The skies just cleared briefly for the 7:30pm start, and then resumed as the run set out. I'd done much more of a proper warm up - building on experience from Sunday. And as with Sunday I started stronger and found myself trailing an even speedier Lewes AC runner (who later told me he was suffering from heavy cold).
The Hike also 6k was a mix of short and long climbs across low downland, and the rain had made chalk paths very slippy. Indeed at one point, piercing screams behind me told of a runner who had gone down and fallen badly. In this run, as with Sunday, while it was tough in the middle section, I didn't get the fading sensation or find hordes passing me. Keeping the same pace as other runners on the uphills, I used the downs to press past folks, and coming into the last km I managed to hold off two Burgess Hill runners (our main WSFRL rivals) in a sustained last 400m or so. Again, it turned out to be very similar time and position to the Sunday - 30:22.
So I hope I can look back on these two races as something of a turning point - where my psychological fear of fading might have been overcome somewhat. The only other change I can think of (aside from psychological and better warm up) is that I have just started to do some core exercises - but that may be too recent to affect my times.
Anyway, short break until the next on 20 August ... we shall see if this sustains.
