Sun - 20/01/19

I did the Braunton 10 mile road race.

I didn't specifically warm up. So my first mile or so was my warm up. My early miles were close to 8 minute miling. The first big hill is a tough climb - it starts at about 3 miles into the race and is a  90 metres ascent over three quarters of a mile. There is some downhill (obviously) and the next big climb starts at about 5.5 miles and lasts for just over half a mile.The last 4 miles are down hill even though it seems that there is some uphill included. My time was faster than my 2008 time!. I lost about 3.5 minutes on the first hill and a couple of minutes on the second hill. So I reckon this equates to maybe a 78 minutes to 80 minutes 10 miles on easier terrain.

My note to Keith...

Yes, it was good to get some racing experience. I didn’t warm up for the race so the first couple of miles was my warm up. It is a road race with two big hills twixt the undulations. The first big hill is a tough climb - it starts at about 3 miles into the race and lasts for about three quarters of a mile. The gradient was such that I was power walking in places. There is some downhill (obviously?) then the next big climb starts at about 5.5 miles. A slightly gentler climb which lasts for just over half a mile. The last 4 miles are downhill even though it seems (electric brae illusion style?) that there is some uphill included. Looking for positives, …although not my fastest ever time for this race, my time was faster than my 2008 time. I lost about 3.5 minutes on the first hill and a couple of minutes on the second hill. I will have reclaimed some of that lost time on the downhill sections so I reckon this equates to maybe an 80 minutes 10 miles on easier terrain. The first M65+, Bernard Dutton, finished one second in front of me but I was racing the clock rather than him so I can claim his scalp at a later stage of my comeback.

https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=166951

My B & B (The Farthings) was really nice and it was a one mile walk to the Williams Arms. As I was racing the following morning I was happy to have a few carbs so I chose from their “Lounge Menu” and had Steak & Ale pie followed by Ferrero Rocher cheesecake. Alcohol-wise I was carb sparing. I had a couple of glasses of Merlot at 7 carbs a glass (beer is about 20 carbs per pint).  

My car radio is not working at the moment so I was completely out of touch with sport on my travels. I have a freebie set of Linguaphone Spanish CDs, courtesy of my Mum & the Daily Mail. so I spent the journey time refreshing my Spanish.