Folksworth 15 Race Report

As you will know, I was not looking forward to this race at all. As if 15 miles wasn't hard enough, it was jam packed with HILLS! Luckily, the weather wasn't too bad, although it was windy it could have been a lot worse.

So, I started the day off with a big bowl of porridge, packed a gel sports drink, a banana, a water bottle and a sports drink bottle in my bag after having already dropped off a sports drink round a friend who would be marshalling the race at the 7 mile point. The plan was that I would have finished my first bottle by then and would be ready for the next. I also popped a few jelly babies in my shorts pocket. As it happened, I drank the two bottles of sports drink and had a jelly baby every time I approached a hill - not at all sure it made any difference but it made me feel better!

I had no preconceived idea of pace, I was just going to run at whatever felt comfortable and try and make the most of the downhill sections as I knew I would lose quite a bit of time on the uphill. The gun went and although there were not that many of us (435) the road was quite narrow and it took 38 seconds for me to cross the starting line!

I set off nice and steady and was surprised to see that I passed the first mile marker in 9.02. It then took me the next mile to work out what that was minus the 38 secs! The first big long hill came in at 3 miles - this was long and kept steadily climbing, we then had a small dip followed by a smallish hill and then a lovely long downhill section! This brought us to Mile 7 to the BIG HILL. There's nothing I can say, it's just a killer and you have to just get stuck in and work your way to the top.

It was great that a few of our club members were Marshalls (yes, I picked up my drinks bottle here) and their encouragement was greatly appreciated! My hubby was also there to support and took this photo of me coming up the hill - you can see beyond us runners to where we had come from (and this was not the top of the hill, no sirree, there was still a way to go!Some people hate the idea of a 2 lap race - I'm not so sure. At least you know what's coming. So we continued on to do the whole thing again, running past a side road where the finish line was situated.

Around 8-9 miles I could feel my hip, thigh, buttock area starting to ache a little bit and tried not think about it. I was counting the miles .... 10 miles ....11 miles - around this time I got a bit confused and was trying to work out what I thought my time might be. I was multiplying the miles by 10 and then taking off minutes and and forgot I had passed the 11 mile mark so when I approached what I thought was 11 miles and saw it was in fact 12 miles I was deliriously happy! I must have had a sugar overload, perhaps too many jelly babies fuddling the brain! Anyway, it was such a psychological boost - only 3 miles to go not the 4 I thought. Of course, I still had the BIG HILL but at least I knew it was the last hill and not much further on from there.

Once up the hill, I pushed on and managed to overtake a few people on the way to the finishing line. I looked up at the clock and it said 2:17:41. I crossed the line with a great big smile on my face. I felt good, my legs were tired but all in all a good run!

Time: 2.17.41
Dist: 15 miles
Avg Pace: 9.07