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Another great race, Trin, and another excellent report.
It was certainly tough going. If I had any strategy at all (other than to finish) it was to get to the bottom of the hill as quickly as possible (within reason obviously) and then hang on. I realised that everybody would be struggling up the hill but figured that given my recent lack of training I’d struggle more than most. Having said that I do enjoy “letting go” down hill, so I thought I might do some catching up on the way back down.
Like Trin, I expected one long drag from bottom to top – and other than that I had thought it best not to think about the race much beforehand. Nah nah nah . . I’m not thinking!! That sort of constructive approach, you know!
So it was a surprise to find that after one extremely steep grassy incline we had to run back down hill a little way before going uphill once again. And on the second slope there was the nuisance of having to keep out of the way of those who knew no fear and were just hurling themselves down again.
I did try to hide in a farm half way up but somebody saw me and told me I was going the wrong way – darn! – and so that little ruse failed. And after that I was out of little ruses!
When I reached the top I saw Trin just coming back to start the run down, having already circled the summit. I tried to yell some encouragement at the top of my voice but there was no air in my lungs and it came out as a whimper.
The view was superb but I had no time to admire it as they’d forgotten to flatten the top of the Knoll so I had to watch where I was putting my feet as we ran round all the dips.
Then it was my turn to run down again. I couldn’t go for it as I my lungs were still recovering from the climbs. On the second section of descent I managed to cast all fear aside and let my legs go – pointless really as I only passed one person and he passed me soon afterwards back on the flat.
After that I just kept my head down and focussed on finishing. At the last bend I looked over my shoulder and saw the guy I’d been close to all through the Series some way behind, so that was mission accomplished. Only later did I realise that up until yesterday we’d beaten each other 6 times this year so yesterday was the decider. I’m so pleased I made it!
Garmin tells me that the first hill started 27’ below sea level, and in the space of a quarter of a mile we climbed 217’. The downhill stretch took us back down by 56’ in the space of a third of a mile. And the final climb took us up a further 263’ in three quarters of a mile. So overall we climbed 480’ in 1.3 miles. Nice!!
Trin was 63rd yesterday, and 5th LV35, whilst I was 90th. A total of 108 mad souls threw themselves off the top of Brent Knoll!
It was great to see Trin’s broad beaming grin when she was awarded her well deserved prizes, and even I got a pair of running socks as a reward for having turned up and raced at least 8 times!
For the record, to take part in the 15 races, we travelled 1,502 miles, we climbed 1.2 miles vertically, and we raced 123.42 miles overall.
We’ll have a break now to average out our carbon runningshoe print!
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