Sun 07 May 06, Puffing Billy (GTR)

16km today and for the week so far, 5/7 runs this month

Left home just after 7am and it was cold, very wet and windy, not great weather for racing...but hopefully the train would be slowed a little, but I was confident that I could run about 56 minutes and that would be fast enough if the train ran the time it has in the previous 10 years. With the race starting at the late time of 9:30 I knew I was going to arrive nice and early, but with parking and a long drive being taken into consideration early was better than late.

I arrived and parked in the Connex car park and phoned some friends to ascertain what coffee shop they were in and met up with Beki, TigerBoy, Jaykay & Stormbikes. Ventured outside about 08:45 and started my warm up, then 9ish I had to brave the weather and get into my race singlet and shorts as I needed to drop my bag in the clothes truck. So here I was 30 minutes prior to the race in the pouring rain in a singlet and shorts, I think maybe runners are a little strange....

9:15 the road was closed and we were able to take up our positions on the start line, I was happy where I managed to get, probably 5or6 back fro the line, but was to discover there are still a lot of 'stupid' people who start way to far up the front!!! The rain stopped but then re-started minutes before the start and remained hard for the next 20-30 minutes. I was happy with my start, a good controlled pace down the hill and with no real problems passing hundreds of slower runners in the first km or so. Under the famous trestle bridge and made the first crossing for the first time without seeing the train. I always knew the hills would be a problem, but not as much as previous years. Whilst I am stronger now than 3 years ago, I knew with my concentration of track racing I didn't have many hill kms in the legs, so the hills we still hard work but I managed to move past some whilst going upwards. At the 5k mark I could seeGeorge just in front of me from the Nike Training Group who I knew was 2 min faster than me at R4K so I was a little worried I may have gone too fast, but I continued on. Between 6&7 km TB past me up one of the hills and moved away at a nice pace, whilst always keeping in sight I only moved closer on the downs. The next major crossing I made and only about 10 or so others behind me before the road was closed, so I was now very confident that I had made it as the unwritten rule is if you are in front her you are fine, but it was not to be...

Once the last hill was done I flew, the final kms on the muddy tracks were fine, I passed a lot of people, I got TB just before the 12km mark and moved on, I also passed George just after the 12k and tried to encourage him on, I crossed the finish line in 55 min 23 sec, but sadly the train finished in the fastest time in the final 10 years, 54 min 58 sec.

Splits: With hills throwing times around and a short 11-12k.
4k: 16:16
5k: 20:14 (3:57)
6k: 24:56 (4:41)
7k: 30:26 (5:30)
8k: 34:12 (3:46)
9k: 38:48 (4:36)
10k: 43:38 (4:50)
11k: 47:47 (4:08)
12k: 51:00 (3:12)
13.2k: 55:23

There were problems with buses afterwards and very slow train timetables, but overall still a pleasant day and race. I took off over 6-7 minutes from my time 3 years and surprisingly I thought I would have been more upset by not beating it, but the train is advertised as being able to go 53 minutes, so I will be happy with my 55 min something and live with it. There are bigger problems in life!




The pic was acquired from Beki's blog, I'm not sure where she got it from as I know she wasn't running with a camera, but it does show the Trestle Bridge which is one of the major landmarks of the course.