10 in 10 Day 3 - 4'22

After pushing hard on Day 1 and racing 16 miles of yesterday, I was knackered going into today. Anna and I had a good chat yesterday and cleared the air so my intention was to just run how I felt and hopefully by myself, I'm getting really really claustrophobic among 11 other runners and needed 4 hours with noone else around. If she ended up with me again, I'd just stop to retie my shoes. Luckily, Anna shot off ahead and I settled into a pace that was comfortable but a lot slower than yesterday, about 9'30 for the first few miles. At that rate, sub 4 was never going to happen.

Within a few miles, I recognised that the world record is going to be Anna's and deservedly so, she's strong, has the endurance of a shire horse and has been getting very speedy lately. I've readjusted my aims ranked by how achievable they are: a. the finish, b. sub 45 hours, c. sub 41 hours (we can both break the world record, she'll just do it by more than me), d. sub 40 hours. At the moment I think only a. and b. are possible. I found a fairly comfortable and sustainable pace today and finished in 4'19. If I'm lucky, I've recovered a bit of energy today having run more conservatively.

As expected, I'm finding it very hard to get enough calories down me. The food here is great, top quality and very healthy, but I'm craving fat - pizza, melted cheese, rich curries with loads of rice. It's also hard to cope with self service - I'm fine if someone gives me a plate of food to eat, but trying to balance enough food for the event, what I think is socially acceptable, what really is socially acceptable and what I actually want to eat is proving just too difficult. I find it easier to eat more frequently, but when the third person in a row said "still eating?" this morning 30 minutes before the race, it was a bit too much.


Positives from today: I enjoyed the race a lot more than days 1 or 2, it was nice to be able to look around me and appreciate the views and all the support rather than worrying about times and race positions. Great to see so many people out there, and if you wondered whether it really was warm enough for the crop top, it wasn't, the vext I'd worn dozens of times before had started to chafe so it had to come off. Well, at least it got a few more cheers from passing cars.

A well earned beer after Day 2