Potentially a lucky number according to my wife and indeed it was auspicious in terms of my day. having run this last year and enjoyed it, I was up for some serious beating of my time last year. After minimal faff and again travelling very light....bottle and a couple of gels, it was race briefing and then off. Watching Centurion running Craig Holgate blast off at the start was awesome. He gained the course record in......3 hrs 12 mins! Insane.
Back to planet earth and I was on a mission. It was muddy underfoot but I was going off at a good pace.....drafting some guy for about 6 miles at 7.45s and feeling good. Then I got stung by a bee. Right in the calf muscle. This pissed me right off so I overtook the chap and off I blasted. Last year I went hard and regretted it in the back half. I hit halfway and bumped into Nathan, whom I had ran with the previous year. We had loads of banter and quickly knocked off the miles. I got to marathon point in 3hrs 33 and felt pretty good. The wheels fell off in the last couple though and I dropped to 9 min miling which meant my overall was 4hrs 10 mins. Still a big 24 mins inside my 30 mile PB. Top 20 and 4th MV40 (narrowly missing out on a podium) at the UK Championships. Maybe an extra gel next year and I can aim for sub 4?
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