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Despite numerous attempts to goad the bad weather gods into action we had another fine day (for which the race starter duly apologised) and a very enjoyable race nonetheless.
The course is set by the Trail-Runners Association and so its pretty tough for a soft road-runner like myself, but I managed to negotiate it without injury despite going into runaway truck mode on one of the steep sections. Owing to various factors, but mainly due to inexperience, I started so slowly that I was passing people almost the whole race. The brisk wind seemed to be behind most of the way, but there were plenty of stiff hills to make up for that.
There must be some excellent Mendip views from the top of those hills, but I didn't dare look up to take them in for fear of falling down a rabbit hole or tripping over one of the several thousand rocks on the trail. I had a quick glance around on reaching the Beacon and nearly turned my ankle on a clump of grass. After that the next few miles was all rather a blur, expecially a steep down hill at about 6 miles. I stormed past at least ten people on that stretch. I was going way too fast, yet my legs didn't have enough strength to slow me down appreciably. It felt a bit like I was going down a mogul run on skis, just barely in control with the bumps coming faster and faster, "having to make increasingly complex decisions at ever decreasing intervals".
After about 7 miles, I felt literally on my last legs, and a couple of people� passed me after the drinks station.
We came to a hill, and one started to walk about halfway up, I felt like doing so too, but just for the sheer hell of it, I decided to see if I could keep running, no matter how slowly. I just managed to reach the top of the hill in front, and then kept ahead thru a flattish section with her on my heels. I finally shook her off on that long uphill to the drinks station where again I kept on running and managed to creep pass another couple of tired runners. Somehow I managed to keep going and overtaking people who incredibly seemed to be in even worse shape than myself. I came in finally in 1:41:30 in about 50th place. I don't think my legs have ever felt more tired after a race, but now I've got 2 whole weeks to recover before the next challenge at the Exmoor Stagger. Its a couple of miles further and has nearly twice as much climbing, so why am I looking foward to it?
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