The average person's body has about 400-500g of stored glycogen.
I started the race today with 400g less glycogen than most people!
Ooh that was a tough one! We started in gale force driving snow. That was a first for me!
The snow lasted for well over an hour before it became mere snow showers. Eventually we had a couple of sunny intervals. These were accompanied by horizontal hail. We really did have it all today.
I've trained hard this week: a hard hill run on Tuesday evening, weights Wednesday morning, 12 miles Wednesday evening, 4 miles Thursday morning, a Kenyan Hills session Thursday evening with very sore glutes and adductors from the weights and a double on Friday with 5 miles in the morning and another 5 miles in the evening.
This was never really going to be a comfortable 20-miler!
The original plan was to take it easy in the first half and then push it on in the second half with some marathon effort. By 4 miles though I was really hungry and running on empty. It was then just a matter of gritting my teeth against the snow and pushing on. It wasn't pretty, but I finished feeling fairly comfortable for a nice easy 20-mile training run, although in terms of effort expended it was more the equivalent of a 24-mile flat tarmac run. Despite the lack of marathon specific quality, I guess a 24-miler must count for something.
The course is a lovely bit of off-road, ignoring the weather for a moment, with 2200ft of climbing. I particularly liked the run through the woods to emerge on the high downs above the Thames - shame we had to contend with a freezing cold gale full in our faces as we descended the downs. Fortunately I was wearing 2 Helly-Hansen's, a club vest, a Gore-Tex jacket, hat and gloves - the most I've ever worn in a race.
I felt sorry for those who carried on at the end, to do the 40-mile option, although some decided to call it quits at 20. Judging by the laughter of those around me, some were enjoying the prospect of 40 miles though. It amused me when one guy referred to me doing the "sprint option".
It was nice to see all the old forum faces: RichK, RFJ, Gobi, Tigger's mate Roo. Well done to club mate Steve for finishing 3rd - top performance!
An experience!
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