Saturday, September 29, 2012

Gert Knackered

Lovely weather. Shame about the running. Just japing. The Black Mountains is a great race. No, seriously, shame about the running.

I decided to try and race it a little bit today. At the Peris I ran to survive. Today I decided to up the effort a little - but perhaps slightly over cooked it. I toned down my three hour splits a little but perhaps not enough. In the early section to Pen Cerrig I subconsciously tried to keep intouch with the Lawsonater. I wasn't really trying to. It just sort of happened in the fog of war. He was just ahead at the ridge before the drop and climb to Pen y Gadir Fawr. In fact I sneaked levelish on the drop to the valley - score one for the holy trial. Then I began to struggle.

I chugged slowly up Penny G - ooh, er misses - she is a hard mistress to tame. I got there outside the three hour split but still a touch too quick really. By the time I hit Chwarel y Fan I was pooped. From there it became a battle just to get to the finish. I decided to try my special route to Crug Mawr but being so knackered it wasn't really going to be an accurate measure of whether it really is an improvement over the conventional route. I dug deep and got though the ordeal in 3:13. Inside my 3:15 target so I'm happy. With hindsight I could probably have survived it better had I not locked horns with the Lawsonator. Good day for the Harriers from Chepstow though. They took the team prize and three individuals. Good work.

I am absolutely knackered right about now. My feet ache. My legs ache. My aches ache. In summary, I ache and I'm practically falling to sleep as I type. It's been another mile - or 17 - on the road to running form. It was hard today - sssh, stop it - but that's what I need...
The 27km of the Black Mountains Fell Race with 5,000 feet of ascent.

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