Leeds Country Way

I've updated this blog so little recently that it must seem like I haven't been running. I have, just not with any real consistency, and I haven't raced for an age. I've been ticking over, but not feeling really good about my running. Just doing enough to get by, but having to take more unplanned rests from training than I'd like, so it's been very up and down. Nothing very interesting to write about.

Anyway, yesterday I took part in the Leeds Country Way relay race. This is a 64 mile race which is split into 6 legs of 9 - 11 miles each, which you have to run in pairs (12 people per team). It's mainly off road, and it's not marshalled so you have to navigate a bit too, from a sheet of the most cyptic instructions you could imagine. We went out for a recce of the leg I was doing a few weeks back, but I was hungover and it felt like the worst torture imaginable, not to mention unbelievably complicated and easy to get lost so I wasn't looking forward to doing it again!

We were leg 2 so we had the benefit of knowing roughly when we were going to start. As the race gets further advanced, the margins for over/under estimating the times of the previous runners get wider and wider, whereas at least we only had one leg before us. It also meant that we were running at a pretty normal time, rather than early morning or mid afternoon.

I've never done that sort of relay before, and didn't really know what to expect. As we got there, some of the faster runners were already coming through, and we were a bit unprepared when we were standing having a chat and suddenly saw some purple coming round the corner, so had to dash to the handover point to set off. The first leg got to us well within the cut-off time, which meant that we got to carry the baton round with us (so it doesn't take too long, if they don't make it by a certain point there is a "mass" start, so the next leg can set off before the previous runners arrive, but if you do that it means the baton doesn't make it all the way round).

The run itself was surprisingly manageable. I suppose it's not exactly unexpected that it was better than last time I did it, when I felt like death, but knowing what was coming and how far each little bit was made it easier to say to myself that I just had to get over this field or up this hill before there was an easy bit. The ground was treacherous in places (one field in particular where I nearly went over on my ankle about five times), and some of the fields had been ploughed or harvested since we did the recce, but we didn't get lost (a minor miracle!). There were only a couple of points where we had to stop to look at the instructions, which was pretty good.

I was surprised at how spaced out all the teams were. During the whole leg (just over 11 miles) we didn't overtake anyone, and no-one overtook us. We occasionally saw two other runners in the distance. It was a good job we weren't relying on being able to follow someone else (although it may be that that's not a good idea anyway, as apparently quite a lot of people did manage to get lost - despite us not seeing anyone, we apparently overtook two teams, who must have been way off track for us not to notice them).

We got to the handover point about 20 minutes inside the cut-off for our leg, which pleased the runners after us. They had been worried that the start of their leg was quite narrow, and they didn't want to be involved in a mass start because they were aiming to run the fastest time for their leg. We handed the baton on, and they headed into the distance. It was then nearly 15 minutes before anyone behind us turned up!

It was quite fun, and nice to be part of a team event (we got to have a bit of a chat with the support crew at the changeovers, and some of the people on the other two teams (mens and mixed) the club put out (the mixed team beat their cut-off at our handover point by about 10 seconds, everyone was lining up for the mass start when our mixed leg 2 team came round the corner). The odd thing was not having a clue how the team did overall, or where we placed on our leg. Because the winners of each leg are done on their time for just that leg, you could be one of the last teams in and still win it if you started last and made loads of time up, and the marshalls at the change over point know what time you finished, but not what time you set off. I could have gone to the prize giving at the end to find out, but finishing running at 11.25 meant that we went for Sunday lunch at my grandparents' house instead, rather than going up to a random leisure centre at 5pm...

But I was quite surprised when I looked at last years results and saw that the ladies winners of leg 2 took 1:48 to do the leg. Yesterday we managed 1:41 according to my watch. I didn't do it last year, but have heard stories that it was very hot. Maybe that explains why the winning time was so slow, but with a time of 1:41 we might not have done too badly. In the end we came 4th, which isn't bad as there were apparently 12 womens teams. Anyway, we made sure that the baton made it onto leg 3 (although one of the runners on leg 3 fell, which meant it didn't make it any further), which is a nice feeling. Also, given that off road miles are much slower than road miles, 1:41 isn't a bad time for me over 11 miles compared to my road half marathon PB of 1:43. It's certainly better than the 2 hours plus it took to recce it!

So now I'm trying to decide whether to race again before GNR. I kind of feel like I want to do a race to measure my progress, because I haven't raced for so long, but equally this is an important month for long runs, so maybe those would benefit me more. Decisions decisions.