So I sort of booked myself on a 50km trail race on the Jurassic Coast last week as a bit of a f**k it, why not. Let’s give the whole running thing a bit of a boost and see what happens. Kept it super quiet, with my mate the RD even putting my name on the tracker as Pierre Flegere! 
This year it was a smudge under 49km and about 1700m elevation.
Had no plan other than to just see how the body responds and see how long I last before I blow up. Honestly didn’t care if I did 6 hours or 10…
But then I got on the start line! 
Spent the first half managing my body, fluids, calories etc as it was pretty hot. Nice sea breeze when you were on the tops, but all the valleys were baking, especially the ‘undercliffs’ section out of Lyme Regis. Oppressive and humid.
Anyway, long story short. Ended up swapping positions with 3 other guys (we were 2nd to 5th)for the first 23km or so, but then myself and another seemingly pulled away from the other two.
He stopped at the top of the big hill before Sidmouth with his crew (so that’s how he was so quick through the Beer aid station!). Race mode took over and I hammered it down the 1.5km (steep!) Hill into town. Burned through the aid station as fast as I could, whilst still picking up what I needed. I left just as he appeared behind me.
Spent the next, I dunno, 2.5 hrs being hunted by this fella. Was kinda stressful constantly worrying where he was despite ‘not racing’. I pushed on up Peak Hill to get a gap, which worked, but the cramps started threatening with those mini twitches and pulses that you get. Quads, hammies, calves. They were to be relentless for the next 2 hours! 
Somehow managed to hold him off. I had to run away from my kids when they popped up unexpectedly on Exmouth seafront though as I knew he was somewhere near, and there was only 1.5km to go. And I worked bloody hard for that 2nd place! Bad dad of the year!
Anyway, somehow finished in about 5.15 and 2nd overall! 
Getting the usual ‘sandbag’ stick off all my mates now! 
…
However! Justification incoming. I looked back and in the past 9 months (since North Coast 100) I’ve averaged 10 km per week running. One 25km back in Jan and one 17km a couple of weeks ago that set the idea in my head!
Legs went ballistic when I stopped. Couldn’t walk over for the photo as they were cramping like mad! Luckily a new lad who’s running with our crew was there as he’s, helpfully, an osteo. So a nice massage helped ease things out a bit!
Super chuffed with that. But it’s not doing a very good job of teaching me to train properly!
. Anyway, it was 90% off-road with lots of cambers, roots & quite the mud-fest. Loved it, worked into first km, then started picking people off & kept shape until the end.
