Nicola Morris reports: Having got the club place in the London marathon this year, I thought I would share how I got on with the 20 mile race I did on Sat 23rd March.
Too late for a place in Ashby I searched for a 20 mile race which was at about the right time in my training and was also not too far to travel. I came across the 20 & Half Fission. So, at 7.00am on Saturday morning I was leaving my house for the drive down to Berkeley, Gloucestershire to the start of this race.
I thought setting out at 7am left plenty of time to be there for the 9am start but, after the long walk from the carpark to race HQ, queuing to collect race numbers and queuing for the toilet there was little time to do anything other than dump the bag and get to the start line.
I was a bit nervous about the race. My long runs hadn’t been going as well as I’d hoped and I hadn’t done a 20 mile race for some time. Today was a bit of a test of where I was at.
The route was 2 laps and was described as flat and it really was. The route took us along some beautiful country roads and through some lovely villages. In the first 10 miles we had to contend with mixed weather conditions, one minute it was sunny, then really windy and at one point we had sleet! I got round the first 10 mile lap…..it felt like a lot more! I felt like I had worked hard for that 10 miles, where was I going to find another 10 miles?!
I struggled through the next few miles and had to give myself a bit of a talking to but by the time I got to mile 15 I was sure I would be getting to that finish line!
At about mile 17 I seemed to get back in to my stride and despite more sleet and a head wind through mile 19 to 20, a bit of healthy competition from some fellow runners got me through to the end.
I feel pleased to have done 20 miles. My plan is to do one more long run and then taper for a few weeks.
This was a pretty race and as I mentioned very flat so great for anyone who loves a flat, fast race. I think I need a few hills just to distract me from thinking too much about the running!