31st October 2016
After the Stumble run last weekend I was feeling quite
confident about the HerePath. Monday I had a rest day, the weather was still
really nice to say it was late October, except Monday it poured down!!! All day,
I could just imagine the HPH route being even muddier after the cattle had been
there as well.
Tuesday I decided
on one last long run before Sunday, so I was parking at Thurlbear church late
on Tuesday after noon, it was warm and quite humid as I set off up the road. I
felt ok and reached the Staple Hill car Park in a good time, deciding to avoid
the muddy section. By the time I had got round to Bickenhall and 11 miles gone
I was feeling it once again, despite a gel after the descent of Neroche, little
did I know this was to repeat its self again in the race. I got back to the car
12.4 miles covered in 2hr 13 mins
and a pace of 10.53. I told myself this was a training run and I would be
quicker on the day!!! Famous last words me thinks!
below are several photos from the route
Thurlbear church, the starting point of the race
first hill
sign for another 1.5 miles uphill
at last in the open
this is a steep track, much steeper than it looks in the photo, definitely a walk
Part of the 2 miles down hill bit after Neroche
below are several photos from the route
Wednesday was a
Wobblies day, a good run down to the coast and Coffee and cake in West Bay, another 38 miles clocked up in good
company, I am still riding my summer bike as the roads are not too bad, as well
as wearing three quarter tights.
Thursday I did a
short run round town to keep my legs ticking over 4 miles covered.
Saturday was
visiting Grandchildren day as it was Mrs IanBs birthday on the Sunday. We were
greeted by, banners and balloons! We had a lovely lunch and spent a great day
with the twins and grand daughter, much cake eaten as well! The children
particularly enjoyed the balloons and the year old twins, seemed to enjoy
reading the birthday cards.
Sunday race day,
the clocks had gone back the night before which meant an extra hour in bed,
although I was up at 6 :00 thinking about the day ahead. Breakfast, energy
drink made, gel in pocket and cereal bar ready to eat an hour before as it was
a 10:30 start.
Picked up Rachel at the top of the lane, who informed me she
hadn’t run this week and only once the week before!!! Ermmmm!
Parking was easy even though it’s a narrow lane, the joys of
being early. Numbers collected, I was number 2 this time for some reason.
Race Director gave us the information as usual, then it was
start line, we were quite near the front, purely by accident. The weather was
misty, no wind and reasonably warm, unlike the cold wind at Minehead the week
before. There was a full field of 200 today.
We were off and the
first mile is mainly roads so there was a fast pace, 8 minute miles! Too fast
for me to keep up for very long , we hit the first off road section as the path
started to climb, the pace still quite high, runners over taking us on the
narrow tracks, as the paths went up and the miles increased we did slow a
little and the field thinned out with lots of heavy breathing !! I kept trying
to sip my ‘Tailwind ‘ drink to keep topped up.
We were soon at the first road where we turned off for the
very muddy and wet section, the path twisted in and out to start with, through
very wet dips before emerging onto the hillside and the narrow path that was a
cattle run, full of deep mud and water, this was a walk, over the stile, but
fortunately the runners were spaced enough to avoid queuing. The mud continued
till we met the road again. My Inov8 gaiters now giving their worth by keeping
it out of my shoes. The track steepens here and we were soon walking , as was everyone
else. We continued to the top of the Blackdowns and Staple Hill before
descending a little to the first water point, where we were greeted by Rachels
schoolchildren cheering us on and at one point running with us! [ Rachel is a
teacher in a local school whose children man the water stop, she also runs the school
running club] this did give us a boost. 6 miles gone, just over an hour so
going well, mostly uphill, I was feeling
OK, a couple of sweets and a drink of water before descending on a steep downhill
towards Britty Common, this is one of my routes so I was familiar with it. Crossing
the road once again we climbed up to Neroche Castle before descending a good 2
miles down a good Stoney track to the road, I remembered my descent the week
before on the Stumble, but sadly couldn’t replicate it, especially with 5 miles
to go, so not as fast as I would have liked to pick up time.
I decided it was time for my gel [ I had taken
an out of date one May 16!!!] before the final 4 miles. As we hit the road
section near Bickenhall I started to feel tired, legs were getting slower,
Rachel seemed to be going well [ as usual] drink stop again before a mile of
uphill road running, I could feel the energy starting to drain away and Rachel
started to pull away, I couldn’t stay with her, we entered Bickenhall woods which seemed to twist and
turn for ever before emerging into brilliant sunshine and my most hated bit of
the run round a field, quite sticky mud, just managing to lift my feet enough
to clear it, back into the woods once again, lots of mud this time and more
uphill, but!! I knew it was the last uphill and I know I always struggle on
this section, only 2 miles to go and the last mile is down hill. I walked and
Rachel did wait for me at the end of the woods. We ran together round the road
to the final down hill through more woods on a forestry track, seemingly going
on for ever. Time was moving on I knew I would be slower than last year. The fast
start I think didn’t help. We finally came out of the woods and the final 200
metres uphill to the finish, 2h 22 min 58 secs that’s 6 minutes slower than
last year. I was very tired, it had been a hard run! I still don’t understand
how Rachel manages on so little training!! ‘youth and agility’ obviously
outweigh ‘age and cunning’ !!
We collected water and our momento, this year a glass with
the race and date on etc. before driving home for a well-earned shower and lunch!
I thought I would have gone better than I did, so a little
disappointed, I think I went too fast too early and made a mistake of an old
gel, clearly not as effective, in fact I didn’t notice any difference!
We did manage 113th out of 200 which was quite
good and I noticed I was 2nd in the over 60 category, there were 4
of us.
Monday a nice
surprise when I had a package delivered, it turned out to be a trophy from the
Minehead Stumble, for coming 1st
in the over 65 age group, I didn’t know they had one other wise I would have
stayed to have it presented! My first trophy for running, a very nice
paperweight.
The HPH is possibly my last event before the Grizzly next
March, what I do know is I need to get more miles in and hours running before
then!
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