Mixed bag today but generally quite pleased as my knee was a bit sore last night, sometimes happens when my quad is tight.
Anyway, just I was heading to registration I saw a big group of runners heading towards me and I was a bit worried they were the race I was doing and this was confirmed. I then said that the start was supposed to be 8:15, it was just about 7:45 so should have quite a bit of time even though the start was about 5 minutes away. So I was then in a bit of panic as I needed to register and although I was mostly ready, and without going into too much detail I had a slightly bad stomach!
As I was heading down I saw the RD coming back and he said he’d follow me down and acknowledged that the race brief on the email did say 8:15 start instead of 8, and it also said registration was until 8. I knew he wanted to get back for the last race so I said I knew where I was going, he did say he’d either deduct my time or what I told them at the end.
This was both good and bad, I knew I wouldn’t get dragged along by a fast start, but equally knew that the people I’d be around would be long gone and I’d have probably dug a bit deeper to keep up with them in places. So it turned into a TT. It actually wasn’t that long before I caught the tailrunners and a few of the slower people, a few others said they’d also been late or just about due to start time.
The trails weren’t too bad, not too muddy for early Feb and a damp winter, but the first 6K or so is technical at times with tree routes, greasy boulders as it follows the river. I tried breaking it up into 3*11K and I went through the first 11K in 61:30. The next section also included a few long drags, for anyone that has ridden Harrogate on Zwift, those lumps aren’t false 
there was also a few muddy farm fields. But my pace on this section stayed about the same and was a very similar split.
I knew the last bit had a reasonable amount of tarmac and although I was catching people and some of the 35 mile runners I knew I wasn’t pushing particularly hard. I then switched off with about 6K to go, I could see some runners and tape markings ahead so kept going but missed the split turn for our race, I hadn’t looked at my watch. I caught one of them and had noticed on my watch I was off course and he confirmed he was doing the ultra! So, by the time I’d retraced my steps I’d lost about 4 minutes 
I eventually got to the finish in 3:07 on my watch and showed them that and they took the time. This would actually have won me the M50 category, but the current results show me with the time of 3:15 which was from the main start and I suspect they’d already given the other M50 the trophy. Wasn’t too bothered though as it was mostly a training race.
Looking back at my HR it was lower than I’d expect for a race of that distance but not having people to race didn’t help. But on the plus side I know I don’t feel too battered and to do 33K on a cold day and that route wasn’t bad but there was barely 600M ascent. With a few more runs and drier conditions I’d still like to think I’ll be around 5 hours at the 50K race in April.
but I expect right up your street - what scheme are you conjuring up now??
