Centurion North Downs Way 100 - 05/08/17 - 25:09:04

This seems to be a run where I'm making a few mistakes along the way.  I don't usually start at the front as I prefer to start at the back and work my way up towards the front during the course of the race.  At the race start I'm towards the front of the queue as I'm chatting to Kristian Morgan whom finished an impressive 3rd.  I settle into my race pace but before I've got to the first checkpoint I've opened up a gate only for the gate to be kicked back into a fellow runners mid-rift to which I apologise.  On the way to checkpoint 3 Box Hill Stepping Stones I make a mistake at Ranmore Common where with a couple of other runners I decide to take a left turn instead of a right.  I carry on regardless and run up and down the track until I realise I must have made a mistake.  As I start to head back to the turn I come across another runner making the same mistake as me.  Eventually we manage to pick up the correct trail but it's probably lost me about 30 minutes of running.  I then decide foolishly to try and make some catch-up but as I'm now running at a faster speed it's not long before I'm back on schedule but at what cost?  Past checkpoint 3 Box Hill Stepping Stones and then up Box Hill - I count 204 steps and after reaching the top I manage to get a sprint going along the trail to hear "Don't cheat" as I go past one spectator.  I've managed to fall over twice in two separate instances.  Once making a wrong turn again I trip over a tree root but manage to pick myself back up.  Another time I get pushed in the back and go head first into a bramble bush.  I'm left with a few scratch marks on my forehead but I manage to get up and carry on regardless. The runner whom pushed me in the back turns out to be part of a support crew as I come to checkpoint 10 Blue Bell Hill the runner is now heading back the way I've just come from.  I miss the turn off for the checkpoint before carrying on for about another mile - realising my mistake I turn back heading past some other runners.  I now realise at the checkpoint that a PB is out of the question and looking at a sub 24 hour finish would be the next target.  That target is still in tact by the time I come to Detling (checkpoint 11) at the 82 mile mark but by the time I get to Lenham the next checkpoint I just can't maintain the pace for a sub 24 hour finish.  I don't stop at Dunn Street, the final checkpoint as I'm now to resort to some walking and a little power walking - hopiing for the end to finish.  Eventually I manage a time of 25:09:04 - no PB this time and a lot of lessons to be learnt before embarking on the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc at the start of next month.