13th June, 2nd place overall

Saturday morning we drove down the A3 from London to the South Downs. It was early. So early that while I was pleased not to have forgotten my shoes, I had forgotten my race number, despite carefully packing a Nathan race belt and some pins just in case.

It didn’t matter, though. The race organisers were well prepared and exceptionally friendly. One new number later, and having watched the earlier wave depart at 9am, then the first leg of the relays go at 9:30, the faster runners toed the line at the 10am start.

The course was a full marathon, set along chalk, dirt and grass trails up and over part of the South Downs. Starting at Slindon Park and finishing near Petersfield, the route was a point to point – we had parked at the finish and taken a bus laid on by the organisers earlier that morning.

Feeling a little bit fatigued thanks to a long week of training, I don’t think I realised I was there to race. In truth it was in the schedule as a long training run – further early season prep for the Trans Rockies to come later in the year. But with a number on and runners nervously hanging around the start line, I figured I had better get near the front just in case my competitive streak kicked in.

Sure enough, it did. The first couple of miles were ticked off at quicker than 6:15/mile pace, and knowing the course had over 5,500 ft of climbing, a 2:40-2:45 marathon seemed a little aggressive for my training run. On the first real uphill I decided to let the four guys running with me go ahead and dropped back to the second group of runners. I nearly let them past too, explaining I was “just on a training run” but their pace seemed to match mine so I dropped into stride and started to chat with them. One of these guys was only 22 years old but was 57 (or thereabouts) marathons through towards his goal of the full 100 by next year. The other bloke, Stevo (Stephen jeffery, who eventually came in third), had a marathon PB in the 2:30s, and had fruit gums in a bag stuffed down his shorts, and gels tucked into the waist band. Innovative and low tech. Good work! Couldn’t help but think he might be in need of a Nathan race belt!

We carried on at a fair clip, and somewhere about halfway, and a few major climbs and descents into the race (we had hit 13 miles in 1:27), I stacked it, falling full onto my front at the side of the track. Just before this I had been feeling like I was going to bonk, and was thinking about backing off, but after the tumble, the adrenaline kicked in and I was rolling along nicely again.

Stevo and I ran together for a fair bit, reeling in some of the guys from the leading pack as the initial fast pace began to take its toll on them. Thankfully for me, given that I’ve managed to take a few detours and add on some extra mileage to a couple of other running races already this year, the earlier wave starts meant that there was a steady stream of runners all along the route. This made it difficult (but not impossible) to go off route… at one point I did have a quick turnaround to check the direction of the arrow – just to be sure! Not only is it easier to follow the route with other runners on it, but it also means that you see other people you know along the way, so I saw a few Serpies (my club) and Anna who I had come down with that morning. Anna was having some ITB issues when I passed her – she ended up nearly pulling out near mile 20. Very proud that she managed to carry on and finish!

The last few miles I was counting miles and clock watching. 3 hours was very close, and i was getting very hungry… a few BBQs in the last stretch had got me thinking about lunch. If only the last section wasn’t quite so hilly! I managed to put in the fastest last 10km of the day and had passed everyone ahead except the leader who was the only runner just to duck under 3 hours on the day. A couple of minutes behind, and in second, I had had a good run and not blown my legs off.

The race had an excellent finish, organised great weather and beautiful surrounds. A highly recommended race series.