This is the final event of the Centurion calendar and when I finish this event I will have completed 4 x 100's and 4 x 50 mile runs in one calendar year.
A week prior to the race I decide to reccy the event and the course looks as though it's going to be tough going. The race itself will comprise of 5 x 10 mile laps but having reccied the event there are some climbs in there.
Having reccied the event I end up doing about 15 miles in about 3 hours so realistically I should be looking at a 10 to 11 hour mark to finish the race instead of going for a PB.
The race starts of cold just a few degrees centigrade and it's not until the end of the first lap that my body has fully warmed up. I start the race towards the back and end up being quite cautious sticking to about 3-4 mph as in some places there is little room to overtake and there are some climbs.
I finish the first lap in a time of 2:00:16 in a position of 139th overall. I don't spend too much time at the checkpoint and soldier onto lap 2. I realise that I'm going to struggle to do 2 hour laps from here on. I finish the second lap in a time of 4:05:33 and move upto 106th loosing only 5 mins from the previous lap. Lap 3 takes me to 06:27:17 as I'm now starting to struggle with these climbs. Nevertheless I move upto 101st position. Lap 4 finishes in a time of 09:10:00, it's now taken me nearly 3 hours to complete one lap instead of two for the first lap. For lap 5 I struggle even more but the lap time for lap 5 shows the split time is the same for a lap 4 as for lap 5 - 02:43.
I'm glad that I've managed to finish that race as it was the toughest 50 miler I've done.
