II’m back. After a pretty unenthusiastic July where I managed to keep up the running streak more out of habit than anything else, I am determined to get back on track and start enjoying my running again. Part of that is recording what I am doing and updating my blog. So yeah, I’m back.
Berwick Law Hill Race was one of the highlights of last year so I was very much looking forward to running it again. It’s a fantastic, short race (about 5km) up and back down Berwick Law, starting and finishing at the harbour. Last year I remember what seemed like the whole town being out to watch and the cheers and support as we came back into the harbour was fantastic. Well it was the same again this year and this race is now firmly established as one of my favourites. I had checked last year’s results and I had 27:23 to beat. Looking at the times of other runners that I knew, I thought that 26 minutes something would be great, and 25 minutes something would be a miracle.
Arriving at the start there were a lot of brown vests and I found a position near the front of the pack and on the signal of the starter pistol we were underway. My lesson learned from last year is to reach the gate in the wall about 800m from the start as quickly as possible to minimise the impact of being caught in the bottle neck. I achieved this and was hardly slowed at all as we squeezed through the gap and headed upwards towards the eponymous hill. The terrain is ever changing and you are barely running for 2 minutes on tarmac before it changes to trail before it changes to hill then trail and tarmac again. The other lesson learned from last year was that fell shoes are no use when you get off the hill and are trying to run at speed down tarmac, so this time I went for a compromise and wore my new Saucony Excursion Tr8 in anger for the first time. This was a good decision.
My new trail shoes
The race is tough. Short races like this allow no time to slack off and then make up for lost time, so I set off at a good pace and kept it up the whole way. Starting from sea level and then running up the 187 m (614 ft.) high hill meant that it was uphill straight away which is always hard. I was blowing and puffing all they way through the park area until I reached the car park where it levelled off for a bit. The respite was brief and then it was straight up the steep ascent of Berwick Law itself. My aching quads as I type this are testament to how hard it was. I pushed as hard as I could and reached the top in relatively short order, received my wrist band to prove that I had reached the top, then started my decent. Thanks to Kata and Abby who were standing halfway up the hill and shouting their support. I heard them form a mile off and it was very welcome and appreciated.
A couple of stolen pictures. I'm concentrating.
The downhill section was good. I am normally garbage at downhill running and can’t get over the mental barrier of braking as I run down. This time though was fine and I overtook quite a number of people on my way down. My new shoes seemed to do a good job and I remembered some advice I recently read about treating a fast downhill run like a tap dance. Small, quick steps. At the bottom of the hill there is a short, not very steep ascent, and I tried my best at this stage to push on up the hill. I consider myself to be a road runner and thought I might be able to make up some time on the (presumably) hill runners that were around me. I ran as fast as I could and I was shattered. During the uphill my left leg buckled slightly underneath me – I was officially tiring. Cresting the uphill at the school it was all downhill from here (only in running is the expression “it’s all downhill from here” considered a good thing).
Brian and I apparently competing for "Most Camp Decent".
Running back down through the park I heard a coach from Edinburgh AC encourage one of his runners with the advice, “Only 1000m to go, 2 minutes!”. I think even downhill I’d struggle to complete 1000m in 2 minutes – I presume he was joking! In the end I think he was right about the time but not the distance. Running back through the gate and into town it’s hairs on the back of your neck standing up time. The cheer of the crowd (and I use ‘crowd’ advisedly) was amazing, the bagpipes very welcome, and there was a policeman stopping traffic for us. I was running as fast as my legs would carry me and was overtaken by an Edinburgh AC guy on the home stretch. There was nothing I could do about it, I was already at maximum effort. In fact, I was beginning to feel quite nauseous and I could feel the bile rising in my stomach. Unfortunately I crossed the line and then immediately found a quiet corner to be sick in. I completed the course in a time of 25:44 (TBC) which before I started I would have considered miraculous.
So I am very happy with that race. I ran the best I could, I left nothing out there, and the organisation and atmosphere afterwards was all I remember it being. The fish ‘n’ chips and beers later were most welcome and I am looking forward to next year’s race already.
Kata in the pub afterwards (drinking apple juice).
No comments:
Post a Comment