Monday, March 23, 2009

Rhayader 'round the lakes' race

Race: Rhayader 'round the lakes' 20 mile
Time/position: 2:22:38 (33/376)

A beautiful spring day for my second consecutive running of this enjoyable race on the 21st. Rather like a fell race on tarmac, it's a nice challenging course in a remote, scenic area. Had no real intention of racing, given Edale's proximity, but did want to maintain a brisk pace throughout. The long (1000ft?) climb from Rhayader to the pass at Penrhiw Wen went quite well, slightly hazy but clear blue skies. Kept it comfortable and found myself in the top 30 as we began the exhilarating descent down to the lakes in a cool wind. Went through 10m in 1:12, enjoying the shade of the trees at this point. A negative split is not hard to achieve on this race, as the second half is merely undulating apart from the nasty hill at mile 19. Slowed dramatically on this, but just managed to keep things going through to the finish and a reasonable position. Recovered quite well, after a fairly good week of training (50 miles). Morgan did his first fell race next day, above Llanarmon yn Ial.

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