Sunday 9 June 2013

3 Peaks Fell Race

It's been a while but here's a synopsis of my first race this year.

Last year I raced the 3 peaks for the first time. I had been up and around the Yorkshire dales on a number of occasions, mostly lugging around spare wheels for Greg doing the cyclocross version of the race. I felt that as they carry their bikes up most of the hills and I don't have sufficient off-road cycling skills for the downhills, I may as well leave the bike at home and just run the fell race instead! Last year I managed 4 hours and 8 minutes and I was hoping to go a little faster this time, maybe even sneaking under 4 hours if all went well.

The race began in sunshine. I started off fairly steady and headed up Pen y Ghent. Felt pretty good heading up, just walking the very steep bits. Got to the top in hail and dibbed in. I felt like I was doing fairly well as I didn't see the leaders heading in the opposite direction, as I did last year. Some people started to pass me out as we got to the more technical descent but I just went at my own pace. I had a little slip but thankfully it was on the grassy part and not near the rocks. Heading from Pen y Ghent towards Ribblehead, I was trying to keep with 2 girls who were just ahead of me. At some point here I was told that I was in 8th. I had been in 6th just before the summit of Pen y Ghent and felt pretty good. One girl stopped and the other one started to pull away from me. I felt like I wasn't running as easy on the road section as I had been last year. Met Greg at Ribblehead and he confirmed that I was in 7th but I ended up walking a bit while getting drinks and food off him. Last year, I continued running at this point.

I felt like I was struggling as I was going up the steep ascent of Whernside and my calves felt tight. At this point, another friend of mine passed me and he was going very fast compared to me. I was keeping my place fairly ok, with just a few people passing me. When I got to the top of Whernside, that's when things started to go wrong. I got a bit of cramp in my right calf but I was able to keep running. However, I wasn't running at a very good pace. I felt that I was slowing down and every time I tried to push off forcefully from my right foot, I got more cramp. I felt like I couldn't trust my feet on the descent. I stopped briefly to stretch but that didn't make any difference.

I met Greg again at the bottom of Whernside and I was definitely struggling at this point. I was much happier at this point last year. I had some more food and drinks and ran on. I was doubting my ability to go under 4 hours but Greg said it was still achievable so I pushed on. I felt like I was just slowing down a lot. I was keeping an eye on my average pace. I had been at about 5.35 per km at the bottom of Pen Y Ghent but by now it was more like 6.20 or so. I had wanted to keep it as near to 6 mins per km as I could. I could see it getting slower and slower. I pushed on up Ingleborough as best as I could.
Again, as soon as I started to descend, I couldn't trust my legs as I was getting cramps in both calves now and also in my right foot. At this stage, I was trying to change my mental attitude but it was very difficult. I was getting more down heartened as each person passed me but I tried to convince myself that each person passing me was an opportunity to have a pacer so I tried to keep with them for a bit. This only worked so well and soon I was back in a low mood again.

I went through a phase where I was seriously considering quitting but I realised that I had to continue on anyway to the end as that was the only way out. I couldn't go off route and take a short cut home at that stage. I was doubting my ability to do anything by now. I was thinking I should just not bother with Belfort and Bolton (my two other big races this year) as running was meant to be my strong point and it obviously wasn't going very well.

I managed to finish it eventually and I was only 10 mins slower than last year. Thinking back on it afterwards, I realised that 10 minutes isn't really too bad considering that I couldn't run very well due to cramping for the 2nd half of the race. I couldn't push off as I could feel my calf cramping up as I did so. I found a way to change my negative mood to positive (when people passed me) even though it didn't last very long.

I had cramps in my calves when swimming this week, for the first time in a long time and I don't know what brought it on. Also, earlier in the week my calves felt tight and tired so I put on my compression tights. There was definitely something going on in the week leading up to the race but I just didn't know what was going to happen or how to prevent it.

All in all, I was a bit disappointed to finish in about 25th place when I had actually been 6th at one stage. However, I hadn't been doing very much running in the lead up to this race. I had been focusing on swimming and cycling, which are usually my weaker disciplines in triathlon. I know I have some work to do!


No comments:

Post a Comment