Holy cow, a race report!
It’s almost exactly a year since my last race, The Wall RunUltramarathon 2013, so you’d be forgiven for being startled by this post. My
apologies. Take a moment to recover.
But first, a quandary. What on earth do you buy for someone
who has no birthday gift list and no Christmas list, but has his birthday four
days before Christmas? You’ve got to
start with buying two things, obviously, one for each gift-receiving event. And
they’re both for your brother.
I ummed and aahed. I rejected clothes (I don’t think he
believes in clothes), I rejected DVDs (no-one buys DVDs any more, do they?) and
I rejected anything that was explicitly marketed as a gift (ie a disposable
thing of inflated value and limited longevity). I pondered. I almost bought
things. Then I had an idea. The Crew Chief and I have a habit of buying each
other weekends away, theatre tickets or other such experience-based gifts, so I
applied this idea to my conundrum.
So I signed Nick and I up to run the Trailblazer.
On his/our birthday I presented him first with a new pair of
running gloves (something he actually needed), then with an envelope containing
a print-out of our race entry confirmations. I prepared my
gracious-gift-giving-face.
He didn’t seem impressed.
But fast forward six months or so, and he seemed pretty keen
as we laced up our trainers and headed down to the forest for a few miles of
muddy adventure. Nick had never run a Rat Race event before and I had a feeling
he would enjoy it. The only recent occasions we had run together had
highlighted that he’s in much better shape than me – doubtless owed equally to
his 10-mile round-trip of a commute on his bike every day and a convincingly
motivated running schedule which I do not possess. I had neither of these
things to boost my confidence and hoped only to be able to hang on to whatever
speed he brought with him.
In fact I had even less to work with. My stomach was
misbehaving and the Gingerbread Man was a nagging concern all morning in the
build-up to our wave’s 11.15am start time. Perhaps my sushi-and-lager dinner
the night before, hurriedly wolfed down in Edinburgh airport before I dashed to
my Gatwick flight, had done me no favours. But something tells me that I’ve
developed a habit of inflicting physiologically-manifesting pre-race nerves on
myself which I really need to get under control…
Things started predictably in Bedgebury. I’ve never been to
this particular forest/country park/pinetum (new word for the day) and it makes
for a great venue for the usual Rat Race set up of beer tent, kit store,
warm-up area, stage, registration tent etc. We mumbled quiet curses at the
summer rain and it eventually got the message and shoved off before our start
time, leaving a sunburn-inflicting cloudless sky. By the time our wave was
deemed warm and ready to go we processed down a steep gradient to the start, as
I mentally and with muttered curses registered the number of feet that would
later need to be regained in ascent. A final briefing (‘the park is open, mind
the mountain bikes!’) and we were off.
Tight early turns and a narrow course, even for our
small-ish wave of runners, made the first couple of kilometres a tough exercise
in positioning and finding a comfortable pace. Nick seemed to fall into an
early rhythm, and I tried to slip into his step but found myself working harder
than I should have. Before long I started to worry about my stomach – I was
sure that I was going to vomit or do something worse at a microsecond’s notice.
I tried to suppress negative thoughts and enjoy the view.
The course is set in a lovely environment, along rough,
stone or muddy roads and trails through a dense forest, and a wholly pleasant
place to be of a Saturday morning. As ever with Rat Race events, the marshalls
were cheerful and eager and the drinks table (cleverly visited twice on the
course without having to run laps) was well stocked and was staffed by smiling,
eager faces attached to quick hands. If I had any criticism it was that there
wasn’t enough muddy, technical trail and a little too much tarmac for something
billed as a trail race, but part of the issue may have been that we changed
surface so many times that it was difficult to find any consistent rhythm. I
guess I was hoping for something like a chunky, entertaining cross-countryish
course rather than a forest-based road race with some muddy bits, but I can
hardly complain. Rat Race offer plenty of races with much more nonsense if
you’re so inclined. The only ‘obstacle’, as far as I remember, was a very small
ditch, but the deceptively long hills, undulating profile and tight corners
were more challenging than they first appeared.
Regardless of surroundings, my stomach was wretched. Nick
and I had gone through 5k together in a little over 24 minutes, but at a water
station shortly afterwards I slowed to drink while Nick carried on. I fought to
catch up but only to tell him to stop waiting and to go on ahead. He didn’t
need telling twice.
I lumbered through the next few km’s keeping Nick in my
sights, usually about 15-20 metres ahead of me. At this stage I was sustaining
myself by thinking that I could still partly salvage, if not entirely save
face. But just before 9km the race chucked us out onto tarmac, and Nick lit the
afterburners. I had nothing in the tank to respond with and watched him go.
 |
| Nick about to finish |
 |
| Very relieved to be done. Ace goody bag. |
It’s rather good, this racing lark, eh? I might do some more
of it.
Happy running
Dave
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