So it turns out that I had not quite put in enough research for these events either. This was not the flat converted railway line that I was expecting. Instead, we ran 32 loops of an unadopted road which were marked as trails. This was something of a bonus for me though as it introduced hills, something that I thought I would not be seeing during these races whilst being surrounded by them each night in the beautiful All Stretton bunkhouse.
The rain driving against the roof this evening reminds me of the first two thirds of today's run. The incessant downpour which kept the competitors in their rain jackets for most of the race. The temperature was relatively mild however and this made hydration a little trickier to manage but a minor complication in the grand scheme of things.
A first lap jogging the route to make decisions on where walking breaks would begin, and more importantly where they would end. And then another thirty one laps sticking to the task. The puddles and mud growing underfoot with each loop but this soft ground helped to cushion the accumulated impacts.
Eventually time passed. Runners pushing a little harder passed by me a number of times, those taking it easier were passed in turn. More than four hours thirty passed during these laps and little of value passed through m mind. The optical heart rate monitor on my latest piece of shiny equipment proved to be the intermittent trash that I was expecting, but when it started to choose random numbers to report, I had a good feel of where my effort was sitting and could safely ignore it until it returned to reality. The main reoccurring thought was whether my feet were landing softly beneath me. Was I maintaining the minimum damage and maximum efficiency that I could whilst sticking to a gentle effort that could be maintained for three days. The answer was almost always, yes. The thought occasionally held my attention to the point where I missed my mark to begin running again from a walk break but never by more than two metres. It was about as disciplined as I could have hoped for. Lap times were maintained to within a fifteen seconds or so with exceptions made for bathroom'ing. Food was to be taken while walking the hills to avoid wasting time, or to provide any reason to deviate from the points chosen for walking and running.
The rain eased eventually. Finally there was even sunshine. Sweating in layers and a rain jacket because you cannot be bothered with the faff of removing it for the last few kilometres is either a sign of laziness or efficiency. I'm choosing efficiency for today.
And after sensible food and time off my feet, my thoughts move to tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that this one really is on the flattened trail of a railway line.
I would quite like the rain to stop for the morning but I will enjoy listening to it tonight.
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