Well I've been building up to this race for a whilst and now here's the obligatory blog. It was an Ultra Race but I'll try to keep the blog Ultra Short as we are now living in a Twitter world (140 characters).
First thanks to the Welsh Team Manager, Mike Robbins, he doesn't get paid and put's in a lot of work looking after everyone, on the day this mean handing out food and drink each lap for all the Welsh Team (32 laps).
The race was 62.1 miles (Garmin recorded it longer but that's always the way). It was hard to think of the whole distance so I used as much distraction techniques as possible, the main one being counting the telegraph poles on the course (I think 57). The technique on focussing on something external is great for getting through hard times so keep it in mind the next time it's only 11:30 in work and you're working until 6!
50k to 80k was difficult because I didn't want to focus on pace, distance or anything as it was just too overwhelming. As a result I slowed my pace, if I had someone to run with they could have done the pacing but I didn't' have that luxury. Then at about 85k I started to think about the pace and stopped being reserved. I went for it and picked up the pace. I realised a sub 7:20 was on the cards and so went for it. I got 7h16m and came 5th overall. That's 7mins dead average per mile.
That's all folks,
Told you it wouldn't be an Ultra blog. I'm happy.
Keep running.
