Having pulled out of the Cov Half due to illness last Sunday, my build up to the first race in the Tempo Events Summer Series was less about putting together a plan for the race and more a question of whether I had enough time to make it to the start line. I was still feeling pretty rough on Monday, though thankfully had improved a bit by Tuesday and was able to do a slow 5k that evening. I therefore packed my kit in preparation to go straight to the event after work on Wednesday, though ultimately changed my plans and went home after work instead. This was partly to make getting changed and ready for the event slightly more comfortable, but also to give myself one final opportunity to withdraw if I needed to.
Ultimately I got back into my car and drove over to Ilmington for the event. I was feeling pretty drained even before the start, but whilst I still had a bit of congestion, I felt like that shouldn’t impact me whilst running too much. That generally proved to be the case, and whilst I probably wasn’t able to get as much oxygen in with each inhale as would normally be the case, it was still sufficient given the pace I was running.
I started the race without any clear sense of what was to come. I’ve done races in Ilmington before which have gone up the Lark Stoke climbs to the highest point in Warwickshire, but this route didn’t utilise any of those climbs. The event description did state that it would be a hilly route, but that could mean a lot of short, steep climbs, it could mean one long, steady climb, or any number of combinations of hills and gradients. But whilst some race organisers are occasionally guilty of promoting an undulating course as flat, I’ve never come across any who go the other way and describe an undulating course as hilly, so I was expecting something fairly hard.
The first mile was a gentle start of the event, taking us out of the village and onto an extremely quiet country lane. We then had a bit of downhill, before the climb began. Initially it was very gentle, though after a short but reasonably steep downhill, the road kicked up. Sadly only two complete Strava segments were picked up on my activity, neither of which were on this section of the course, but I think it was probably about 4% maximum gradients up until this point, which took us through to about halfway distance.
Then we took a right and were greeted with a wall of a climb. I couldn’t see the top of the climb, but not only could I see people walking ahead of me, they were going almost the same speed as those still trying to run, which is always an indicator of how steep it is. Again, I don’t have exact figures, but I can see that I was on that climb for 4 minutes and gained 60 metres of elevation, so it was a long, tough effort.
That though was not the top of the climb. We turned right and whilst there was a short, gentle downhill, the road then started going up again. Strangely though, this didn’t disappoint me. Firstly, that’s because even on an overcast evening, I could still enjoy some lovely views down onto the countryside below. Had it been a sunny evening, it would have been truly glorious. Secondly, when you’ve just tackled gradients of 10% and more, a 2% gradient feels flat. I was able to lift my pace in a way that I wouldn’t do on a 2% gradient on an otherwise flat course, which made for a strange but fun sensation.
Given we were finishing where we started, the fact the road was still going up gave a clue to what was to come. Having made up a few places on the uphill, I now prepared for the downhill and ultimately gave up a couple of places. There was an 80 metre elevation drop over the next 5 minutes, and if that doesn’t sound too dramatic, that’s only because I took longer than I should have due to taking things extremely cautiously. Whether I get up a steep gradient is only ever a reflection of my fitness, but whether I get down one is a reflection of my technique, and I just don’t have enough opportunities to practice steep descents. I was overtaken by a couple of runners, and whilst I wasn’t really competing with anyone, seeing them pull away from me did emphasise how much room for improvement I have in this area.
I was soon at the finish, enjoying the fact that my mood wasn’t immediately impacted by the time on my watch. Whenever you do a set distance, it is always tempting to compare your time to your PB, but sometimes a route will make a PB an unrealistic prospect. That was definitely the case here, but the route hadn’t been designed to be a specific distance. It was a little more than 5 miles, and it wouldn’t even have been possible to compare against previous editions since it was the first year this event has been held. Events that aren’t the usual distances are common within trail running, but I enjoyed a rare opportunity for a road race where the same was true.
The day after the race, I also had the opportunity to enjoy a nice steak pie, which I received instead of a medal. At previous Tempo Events, I’ve come home with cider and a pack of sausages, and I’d always much rather come home with some food or drink than a medal. It also helped manage my energy levels on Thursday, when I was particularly fatigued after the run. Given the distance and the fact I didn’t push my pace, I would normally have expected minimal fatigue, so it was clear that I wasn’t fully over my illness and reinforced that I made the correct decision to withdraw from the Cov Half. I now half a full month until my next race, which will be a trail race, the second event in this series, so hopefully I will be back to full health and fitness in time for that.
Scorpo Stories 