The jungle run was a fantastic experience which I will find it hard to forget. When I booked the race, I had an idea that it was going to be quite flat. Then I found a site which had the profile of the race and realised quickly that this was certainly not the case. The race is started up a short steep incline away from the school track from which the race starts. There is then a general downhill to about 5 miles (punctuated with uphill sections) and then it is all pretty much up hill until 11.5 miles. Then it comes back downhill with a nice 1 mile slope (on an unpaved stony trail) with a slight sting in the tail of a couple of small inclines towards the end. In previous years, the race had finished on the fabulous school track (I wish we had a few more of these around Bristol). However this year the last 50metres were onto a grass field which actually was quite nice.
So, how did the race go? Well, as seems to be the norm from the last couple of races, I went off very fast. My first five mile splits were 6.39 6.42 6.46 6.38 & 6.52 (even with the hills). That got me to the five mile mark in 33m37s. Then we started the uphill section and to make it worse, the change of direction also meant the wind turned against us. I had been with a couple of others up to this point (which probably led to the speed) but they fell back which left me running back up the paved Los Gatos trail by myself. That was until I joined the hundreds of 10km runners who were following the same leg as us for about 3 miles. I had completely lost all sight of half marathon runners and was ploughing my way through very slow - back of the pack - 10km runners/walkers.
As you can imagine, with the hill, wind and slow runners, my pace declined and my second five miles were 6.53 6.55 6.54 7.02 & 7.21. By this stage, the 10km runners branched off towards the finish and the half marathon runners had an additional slog up and down the next part of the trail. At least I could now see some of the other HM runners which meant that I had people to keep up with and catch. I caught two runners by the top of the hill and although one managed to stay ahead until the end I at least managed to overtake one of them. My last three miles were 7.27 7.07 and 6.47. These times I think had some inaccuracy as my overall distance for the race (by my watch) turned out to be 12.97 miles. I'm pretty sure that the 7.21 and 7.27 miles were actually faster. Strange how my watch distances are usually higher but here the distance was lower. The time on my watch was 1.29.53 but online it turned out to be 1.29.54.
The finish was great, with loads of free food on offer including bananas, strawberries, plums, nectarines, cereal bars and plenty of water. I even had a free body fat check (9.5%) which I reckon is pretty low (not sure if good or bad!)
All in all, a great morning run and to cap it all I did my second sub 90 minute half marathon!
As you can imagine, with the hill, wind and slow runners, my pace declined and my second five miles were 6.53 6.55 6.54 7.02 & 7.21. By this stage, the 10km runners branched off towards the finish and the half marathon runners had an additional slog up and down the next part of the trail. At least I could now see some of the other HM runners which meant that I had people to keep up with and catch. I caught two runners by the top of the hill and although one managed to stay ahead until the end I at least managed to overtake one of them. My last three miles were 7.27 7.07 and 6.47. These times I think had some inaccuracy as my overall distance for the race (by my watch) turned out to be 12.97 miles. I'm pretty sure that the 7.21 and 7.27 miles were actually faster. Strange how my watch distances are usually higher but here the distance was lower. The time on my watch was 1.29.53 but online it turned out to be 1.29.54.
No comments:
Post a Comment