Thames Trail Challenge Walk

Sun June 4 2006
Listed by sanddancer
Entrants (1) Club PB SB Pred Time WAVA
sanddancer Position 21/120. Oh dear - that turned out to be very unpleasant. Having gone through 26 miles on the Ridgeway 40 in 6 hours 10 minutes I'd figured that this, being a much flatter course, was a shoe-in for under 6 hours. How wrong I was. I'd set myself a target of running and walking alternate kilometres for an average pace of 8 minutes per kilometre. This strategy started off very well and by 7km I was feeling very comfortable and was already about 3 minutes inside my target pace. But then, the heat of the day started to very adversely affect me (as it did so in the Great North Run). Within a very short space of time I started feeling uncomfortably hot and my heart rate started racing away at 30-40 bpm higher than I'd normally expect at the pace I was doing. On top of this, the blisters I'd developed on the Ridgeway (and which hadn't completely healed) started to flare up again. By 10km, my pace had already dropped a fair bit but I was still heading for sub 6 hours. Unfortunately, the pace continued to slip and slip and by halfway I was just about inside my PB pace. In the second half, the problems with the heat and blisters were compounded by very sore knees and tight hamstrings. The heat even seemed to be affecting my mind because I started to find myself unable to calculate my pace. By the time I got to 20 miles I was dead on my feet but was still determined to finish. It occurred to me that I could maybe just drop out and not be so disastrous to anyone who'd bet on me! I hate giving up on things though, so I trundled on to the finish. If it's any consolation, I bet on myself so my own betting balance has taken a hit of nearly 400 points. Sorry to all you PB bettors who bet on me :-( Vale of Aylesbury AC 4:20:05 6:10:00 7:33:00 27.19

Photos

No photos added yet
  • Add Photo







Back To Top
X

Free training & racing tools for runners, cyclists, swimmers & walkers.

Fetcheveryone lets you analyse your training, find races, plot routes, chat in our forum, get advice, play games - and more! Nothing is behind a paywall, and it'll stay that way thanks to our awesome community!
Get Started
Click here to join 112,237 Fetchies!
Already a Fetchie? Sign in here