I'm mighty glad that one is in the bag. After the scare of my back injury last week, and the rest days it forced on me I was somewhat worried about my first road race of the season and my first ever twenty miler.
My trepidation was heightened as I drove the lanes on the way to the venue and every road name ended in the word "Hill". I'd included Portsdown Hill in my training plenty of times early on but have been enjoying the pan-flat routes around Pompey for the last few weeks, so I'd no idea how my legs would cope with the inclines.
The Spitfire 20 starts and finishes at Dunsfold Aerodrome, site of the Top Gear test track, and the first couple of miles of each lap were on the track itself. Clarkson wouldn't have been too pleased to see his track taken over by Lycra clad weirdos preferring power provided by energy gels rather than turbo boosters. Not a chain smoking petrol head in sight.
Once we left the circuit the course headed out into the countryside and "those hills". Each time I tackle a longer distance it's total guesswork as to the right pace to choose so I tried to sit around the 8:40 per mile on the first circuit and decided to see what happened after that. To my (pleasant) surprise I found the hills more manageable than most and was often able to glide past others as they began to toil when things steepened. Certainly a confidence booster as was my ability to maintain the pace I set out on. The first 10 mile lap took me roughly 1:28 and the second was very slightly faster for an official total time of 2:54:43.
Of course this is very pleasing (I have a celebratory Doombar in hand as I type!) but there were enough signs that tell me the 26.2 will be a whole new ball game. It's hard to explain, but everything got a bit "fuzzy" during the last mile or so and I had pins and needles in my right hand most of the way back in the car. I can take some confidence from this but running this far is definitely pushing the edges of the limits my body can take.
Anyway, massage tomorrow and back on the treadmill Tuesday or Wednesday ahead of another (solo) 20 miles next week. No rest for the gel head.
My trepidation was heightened as I drove the lanes on the way to the venue and every road name ended in the word "Hill". I'd included Portsdown Hill in my training plenty of times early on but have been enjoying the pan-flat routes around Pompey for the last few weeks, so I'd no idea how my legs would cope with the inclines.
The Spitfire 20 starts and finishes at Dunsfold Aerodrome, site of the Top Gear test track, and the first couple of miles of each lap were on the track itself. Clarkson wouldn't have been too pleased to see his track taken over by Lycra clad weirdos preferring power provided by energy gels rather than turbo boosters. Not a chain smoking petrol head in sight.
Once we left the circuit the course headed out into the countryside and "those hills". Each time I tackle a longer distance it's total guesswork as to the right pace to choose so I tried to sit around the 8:40 per mile on the first circuit and decided to see what happened after that. To my (pleasant) surprise I found the hills more manageable than most and was often able to glide past others as they began to toil when things steepened. Certainly a confidence booster as was my ability to maintain the pace I set out on. The first 10 mile lap took me roughly 1:28 and the second was very slightly faster for an official total time of 2:54:43.
Of course this is very pleasing (I have a celebratory Doombar in hand as I type!) but there were enough signs that tell me the 26.2 will be a whole new ball game. It's hard to explain, but everything got a bit "fuzzy" during the last mile or so and I had pins and needles in my right hand most of the way back in the car. I can take some confidence from this but running this far is definitely pushing the edges of the limits my body can take.
Anyway, massage tomorrow and back on the treadmill Tuesday or Wednesday ahead of another (solo) 20 miles next week. No rest for the gel head.
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