A Gallop on the Fens in the Heat

After last week's exertions this week was a little more low key, although I did still manage to keep my weekly marathon-plus long-run streak going. I usually play 5-a-side with some work colleagues on a Monday evening, and last week's match really finished me off after all the miles covered over the weekend. I decided I'd earned a bit of a rest after that, I had a sports massage booked for Tuesday evening and then took it easy on Wednesday and Thursday.

So, Friday was the first run of the week, and it was not a good one! Just my standard 10k route, but my calves tightened up almost instantly and stomach cramps kicked in after a couple of kilometres. I managed to resist the temptation to abort half way round and stuck it out for the full 10km, by the end I was faring a bit better, but still a struggle overall. I didn't go to Parkrun on Saturday as I was ringing in the morning, so the weekend's long run went ahead on Sunday. The plan was similar to last weekend - enter a race a good distance away from home and run to and from the event, rather than driving. The event this time around was the Fen Gallop, a 10km race, mainly off road, around the village of Willingham on the fens north of Cambridge. I ran the race a couple of years ago and so I knew it would be a nice route with a good atmosphere. I also knew that a couple of other Tailenders (yes, there is a running club for bellringers...) were running the race too.

I set out around 7.30, I'd calculated it would be about 20km to get there, through the city centre and then out to the north on the guided bus way. I made it in plenty of time for the start, but could tell it was going to be a tough day as the temperature and humidity were already high on the run out, before the sun had really broken through the clouds. I met David and Cecelia on arrival, David would normally be far too speedy to keep up with, but since he was nursing a thigh injury we decided to all run together. The race itself was a lot of fun, and included several photo opportunities.

 Looking fresh at the start

 Some off-road action on the roller-coaster of doom

This was near the end, I think I was having a better time than Cecelia at this point...

(Photos: David Pipe)

The three of us got round in about 57 minutes, which was pretty good considering the heat and humidity. I felt reasonably good as I set off after a short break to begin the homeward leg. Luckily a bit more cloud cover came in for the first hour or so of the run back, otherwise I would probably have struggled quite a lot in the sun. I made it to the 40km point without too much bother, but soon after I started flagging, and the final 8-10km was stop start and quite a struggle. I think this was likely due to a combination of ambitious pace, heat and not having quite enough fluid on board (although I was not seriously dehydrated). However, overall I was quite pleased with the morning's work considering the tough conditions.

Sneakily edited to avoid showing the slow split times towards the end!

This week has started well - no football tonight, so chance for a recovery 10km run. As runs on the day after a long run go this one was amazing, a nice steady 5:30 min/km pace all the way through, felt very comfortable and legs felt fine - a very nice start to the week! I've got a 50km race coming up this weekend, and since it's timed I'll probably aim to do a decent time. Will I succeed? Or will I crash and burn? Find out next week!

Stephen