Race!
walk/jog there. Faffed for a bit. Walk/jog/stretch warm up for maybe 10-15 minutes to keep teh system ticking without using too much energy.
The aim was to finish around the hour mark. The hilly course might make that trickier though.
Start at the back. Keep it slow, slow, slow, though I kept on noticing that I was going faster than my training runs. The plan was to stick to 10min miles, but having people around me who were going a little faster made me keep up with them. I noticed that as the places were thinning out by the time I got to 1k, at 5.27(ish), which was a bit too quick so I slowed down. A couple of people passed me, but I wasn't too bothered. a couple of 5.45 Ks followed, which was ok, though I was still thinking they were too quick. Then the hills hit, which took me through 5k in 30.40. So they were quite slow then. But I didn't walk, which I was happy about. Most of the people around me walked parts of the hill, mainly the steepest bits. I just chopped my stride and got up it, puffing and blowing. a quick drink on the run overtook me someone else. Got the cup in the bin, punched the air and pressed on. 5-6 was still too slow if I was going to get in under an hour, as it was 5.50-ish. Same again till 7k mark. Some downhill and another swiney uphill equalled out a 4.45-ish, I think. at 8k mark I was dead on 48 minutes, so a couple of 6min k's would do it. 95% of it was downhill, so I kinda thought sod it and let my legs go. I chopped my stride though, to try to save my shins a bit. Might have looked a bit weird going quickly with a short stride, but it felt ok. I quickly took a few people who might have been puffing a bit. That K was around 5.15. More downhill, and a bit of uphill near the finish. At this point I was really pushing it. I pumped up the last uphill, took a breather on the way down then sprinted the last 50 metres or so.
The finishing time gives my last k as around 4 minutes, which I'm not sure it was. Sure, I was sprinting a lot and it was mainly downhill, but I don't think it was that quick, so my recollection of some times there might be dodgy.
Needed a big breather at the end, though I didn't lie down on the grass so I couldn't have been as terrible as I've been previously.
Conclusions:
Time was roughly what I'd looked for, but I had to work harder than expected to get it. The hills didn't help, but neither did my own lack of fitness.
Legs: Hmm. felt my shin a little a times. both shins, actually. But nothing huge, not even on the downhills. Not sure how it'll be tomorrow. Left hamstring was fine throught. Right hamstring felt a bit tight even at the start. Was manageable for most of it. Around 6k the strapping started to feel like it was strangling the rest of my leg, so I tried to shift it up. No good. So eventually I just stopped and rolled it down to my ankle. Leg didn't feel much better, but the strangling feeling stopped.
Now I'm resting, the good ache is in my legs, but my right hamstring has a bit more, an achey ache. Will see what happens.
After stretching and resting for a bit after the race I started the walk home. Broke out into a jog, had to stop after 20 seconds. I'm not that fit yet. So walk-jogged in patches all the way back, about a mile and a half. The jogging sections were up to about 2-3 minutes and felt ok.
Next run: Not sure. I've got a football game tomorrow, which might be interesting. I'll try to protect my legs as much as possible. Plenty of warming up, and possibly using my left more than my right. Then maybe a run on saturday or sunday if I'm feeling ok.
State of mind: Normal. The race felt quite good, but the leg's not great and the general lack of fitness isn't great.
warm