Forest of Dean Trails Spring Half
6:36pm, 24th Mar 2025 | Forest of Dean Spring Trails Half Marathon | 3 Comments
Blog by Sorequads
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After three big weeks of mileage, the last seven days have been very tired. Managed a solid workout of Wednesday, but the rest has felt like running through treacle. Par for the course I guess in the final month before a marathon.
Ran out of both time and energy on Saturday with a 12M MLR planned. This of course would have led to a very untapered race the following morning, but all part of the plan. 2.7M was all I could squeeze in but I guess no bad thing given the afore mentioned fatigue.
Felt a bit more sprightly this morning and enjoyed chatting with some club mates on the drive over to the forest. Arrived very early, but this gave easy access to the toilets (not a given with 1200 runners) and plentiful time for a warm up. 3.5M with three strides. Beautifully peaceful on the trails but it did take 1.5M before I could progress much beyond 9m/m. Collected the England Masters trail race qualifier number - MV40 to be worn on the back. A bit of fun for me really as there were apparently 50 runners nominating sub 80 as their predicted time on a trail course with 800 ft ascent. Top four in each category to qualify. Spent an age considering which shoes to wear; it is obviously a trail race so off road, but pretty light trail on the whole vs dry for weeks with then very heavy rain in the previous 48h. Gambled on full on super shoes but knew it would be a risk on the muddier and rockier sections.
Lined up a few rows back from the start and it was quite interesting and exciting to see the various back bibs on those in this section of the start pen. Bang on 1000 and we’re off! The opening mile is perfect tarmac and flat - queue a mad start all round. 6:07 for me so not crazy, but slightly punchy. Tried to gauge roughly how many ahead, with half an eye on a top 50 t shirt (great idea at this race) - maybe 70 or so and only a handful of females. You then turn right off the road and immediately join the trail with a steep descent. The best part of 200ft over this mile. I was a little surprised it was ‘only’ 5:52, and I would have been quicker in trail shoes or old school adios with continental outsoles.
And so begins a five mile mostly gradual ascent. Never bloody ends! 6:20, 6:44, 7:11, 6:46 and 7:19. The 7s were obviously the steeper bits. Barely a chance to catch your breath, but stunning scenery all round. Not much overtaking going on, but pulling in another ‘back bib’ every now again. I get overtaken by a couple of ladies uphill, but they seem to fall back again on the flats.
6:33, 6:28, 6:26, 6:25 for undulating miles. Superbly signposted and marshalled throughout. 7:09 for mile 12 with the final serious hill. Then it’s time to hold on, and try to catch a couple more Masters entrants. 6:46 for the final full mile. As we make one of the final turns, you usually circumnavigate the car park field on a pretty good path through an arboretum. For some reason we were sent into the car park field this year and it was horrendous. Boggy grass, molehills every wear, slippery. Awful last 400m especially in super shoes. No one to blame but myself for the shoe choice but this short change was definitely not an improvement. Desperately trying to keep ahead of the bloke behind me (we had traded places a couple of times), especially as he had elected to wear over ear headphones (against the rules and you couldn’t be in a more stunning environment to give you inspiration in a race). Give it everything in the final straight and just get pipped. Finish line photos show, for the first time in my running history, me looking quite angry crossing the line 😂
1:26:45 for 54/1200 and 8th in the MV40 category. Solid result, if not spectacular. Loved the scenery and pushing myself over this distance. Hopeful it might, on a very good day be around marathon pace, although 6:40s (2:55) seems a more sensible starting pace.
3.5M warm down out and back on the closing stages of the race, getting to cheer on a few club mates. 20M for the day. Very stiff today. Serious soreness in hamstrings and more general DOMS - I guess having not done any hills of note in recent weeks this was an inevitability. 8M at a very leisurely 8:55s all I could manage.
Ran out of both time and energy on Saturday with a 12M MLR planned. This of course would have led to a very untapered race the following morning, but all part of the plan. 2.7M was all I could squeeze in but I guess no bad thing given the afore mentioned fatigue.
Felt a bit more sprightly this morning and enjoyed chatting with some club mates on the drive over to the forest. Arrived very early, but this gave easy access to the toilets (not a given with 1200 runners) and plentiful time for a warm up. 3.5M with three strides. Beautifully peaceful on the trails but it did take 1.5M before I could progress much beyond 9m/m. Collected the England Masters trail race qualifier number - MV40 to be worn on the back. A bit of fun for me really as there were apparently 50 runners nominating sub 80 as their predicted time on a trail course with 800 ft ascent. Top four in each category to qualify. Spent an age considering which shoes to wear; it is obviously a trail race so off road, but pretty light trail on the whole vs dry for weeks with then very heavy rain in the previous 48h. Gambled on full on super shoes but knew it would be a risk on the muddier and rockier sections.
Lined up a few rows back from the start and it was quite interesting and exciting to see the various back bibs on those in this section of the start pen. Bang on 1000 and we’re off! The opening mile is perfect tarmac and flat - queue a mad start all round. 6:07 for me so not crazy, but slightly punchy. Tried to gauge roughly how many ahead, with half an eye on a top 50 t shirt (great idea at this race) - maybe 70 or so and only a handful of females. You then turn right off the road and immediately join the trail with a steep descent. The best part of 200ft over this mile. I was a little surprised it was ‘only’ 5:52, and I would have been quicker in trail shoes or old school adios with continental outsoles.
And so begins a five mile mostly gradual ascent. Never bloody ends! 6:20, 6:44, 7:11, 6:46 and 7:19. The 7s were obviously the steeper bits. Barely a chance to catch your breath, but stunning scenery all round. Not much overtaking going on, but pulling in another ‘back bib’ every now again. I get overtaken by a couple of ladies uphill, but they seem to fall back again on the flats.
6:33, 6:28, 6:26, 6:25 for undulating miles. Superbly signposted and marshalled throughout. 7:09 for mile 12 with the final serious hill. Then it’s time to hold on, and try to catch a couple more Masters entrants. 6:46 for the final full mile. As we make one of the final turns, you usually circumnavigate the car park field on a pretty good path through an arboretum. For some reason we were sent into the car park field this year and it was horrendous. Boggy grass, molehills every wear, slippery. Awful last 400m especially in super shoes. No one to blame but myself for the shoe choice but this short change was definitely not an improvement. Desperately trying to keep ahead of the bloke behind me (we had traded places a couple of times), especially as he had elected to wear over ear headphones (against the rules and you couldn’t be in a more stunning environment to give you inspiration in a race). Give it everything in the final straight and just get pipped. Finish line photos show, for the first time in my running history, me looking quite angry crossing the line 😂
1:26:45 for 54/1200 and 8th in the MV40 category. Solid result, if not spectacular. Loved the scenery and pushing myself over this distance. Hopeful it might, on a very good day be around marathon pace, although 6:40s (2:55) seems a more sensible starting pace.
3.5M warm down out and back on the closing stages of the race, getting to cheer on a few club mates. 20M for the day. Very stiff today. Serious soreness in hamstrings and more general DOMS - I guess having not done any hills of note in recent weeks this was an inevitability. 8M at a very leisurely 8:55s all I could manage.
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