Box Hill Fell Race 2012

Whilst the Box Hill Fell Race is considered by some to not be a proper fell race (the lack of route choice, the total height of the fell being a mere 224m) it packs a weighty 1,700ft of climbing into its 7.5 miles with steep ascents and descents throughout and at the end of the day whether its trail running or fell running or cross country it doesn't particularly matter; the race is well organised, very hilly, off road so that's all you need to know.

Despite starting and finishing at the same place and passing a few of the same intersections, the route doesn't have too much overlap with the other box hill race- the Midsummer Munro.   The course starts tracking horizontally across the grassy face of Box Hill, round a marshal to take the steepest corner.  From the trig point you then descend steeply over the open grass to hit the trails which then for the rest of the course ascend and descend gullies and woodland tracks.  Some of the hills need a proper effort to move at any speed, at one point I was overtaking people who were running whilst I was walking.  This said, in general it's mostly runnable- to put in context the winners posted sub-7 minute miles on average and mine, a quarter way down the field, were around the 8 and half mark.

Going into the race I wasn't feeling massively confident; training on Tuesday after cross country the week before was hard and a short run on Thursday felt like a real effort for a mere 4 flat miles; but lining up at the start I felt quite good.  The field was strong, and like with cross country league matches it is amazing to see the pace that the front runners take up the hills.  Over the first few miles it was pretty hectic, especially on the first descent from the trig point over open grassland, but the long climb up to Box Hill village started to separate out the field, leaving me at some points running without another runner in sight.  At around the 4 mile point I turned my ankle on a stony descent, started to slow down a bit and was passed by a couple of small groups of runners.  Somehow at around mile 5.5, I think with the arrival at White Hill from which I knew where I was in terms of the course, I got a second wind and managed to draw those runners back into sight and with that motivation then managed to claw back a few places in the final mile.  The finish was at the bottom of the main path down the hill- perfect for an out-of-control-sprint-finish.

Final time was 1:04:08 and 63rd place, which I'm happy with but will hopefully be back next year to take a few minutes off.

Lloyd Park XC

 The weekend was Cross Country down at Lloyd Park.  Last time I ran near Lloyd Park was the disaster that was the Croydon Ultramarathon- but at least today I had no worries about getting lost due to the fantastic course marking and organisation by Sutton Runners and Holland Sports.

The field was strong and I started too fast meaning after the first mile there was a whole host of people overtaking me which was, truth be told, pretty depressing.  Come the second lap I managed to pick up the pace a little and gain some places back, especially on the final downhill and crossed the line in 68th 33:15; not bad but not great.  The club however did well as a team coming in at third; keeping us at fourth in the league.

Next week is the Box Hill fell race which is going to be longer, hillier and harder than xc in Croydon- and despite all this, I'm looking forward to it!

Wymondham New Years Day 10k

A-ha!  Yes, you're right, I've been to the great city of 2 Cathedrals and 5 Department stores- Norwich! 

 

After a New Years eve of relative restraint, but a few beers and much cheese I lined up with around 500 others for the Wymondham New Years day 10k.  Amongst the fellow competitors was my mate Tim whom we were staying with for New Years.  Tim shares both my interest in running and ale, however chooses not to bore the world by writing about it on the Internet. 

 

The start was along a narrow country lane meaning it was quite a hectic start for the number of competitors, but the field quickly spread out so there wasn't too much jostling going on.  This said a guy over the first few miles who I was running near I'm sure was trying to run me off the road as he held his race line.  The course is, as you would expect in Norfolk, broadly flat but with more inclines than I expected which are mostly in the first and last couple of kilometres. The incline at kilometre 9 was a particularly unwelcome surprise.

 

I had vague plans to try and run a negative split.  At halfway my time was around 20:30 and I crossed the line in 40:58 (54th place), so I suppose I sort of managed this- although my attempts to speed up in the second half resulted more in not slowing down than anything else.  Tim came in a couple of places and around 17 seconds behind me narrowly missing out on a PB.

 

So all in all a nice morning out across the rural roads of Norfolk; maybe not the most exciting race of all time but certainly a good way to start the year.

 

A-ha!