Race week approached and I had not got a decent run in for a while but managed to stretch my legs on a 10k hitting a pace of 5:49min/km (on the flat) which gave me confidence for the race. Also in this week I received a message from Kelly D asking if I had space in the van for the trip over to Hayfield. I assumed he had a friend looking for a lift over but no, he had decided this event would make a perfect taper run for him in advance of the Round Sheffield Run. Kelly is quite a bit faster than me but as he was tapering opted to run with me, so we discussed strategy and went for a fairly simple one - try and run the flat bit on the start at around 5:30min/km then see what the hell brings - slow up, fast down - then once back on the trail give it all you've got left. The other thing the week before the race brought us was hot weather, and I was praying for it to break at the weekend, I would even have welcomed rain.
That didn't happen. We left Sheffield bright and early on Sunday morning and you could already feel the heat in the sun. By the time we got to Hayfield at 8:30 it was already scorching. We got registered and sorted race numbers etc, then watched the long course starters depart and listened to their briefings - extra water stations had been added, conditions were dry and dusty. As expected kit rules were restricted, this time I did opt to leave my waterproofs behind but still took my pack for water supplies, having been cunning and frozen the bladder before setting off. Waiting for the start it was beautifully cold against my park, I shall be repeating that idea.
Time for the off! As it is a dibber timed race there is no mass start, people instead starting on an individual time. Previously I have ended up right at the start of my wave as other racers seemed to be reticent, but on this occasion there were many eager racers jostling to start and we ended up several people back. The first 200m were quite narrow and twisty, dropping down steps and over a single file bridge before going up the steps on the other side, through a housing estate, and then on to the trail proper. This meant that pace was very low and as I run to an average pace for the current km I was trying to get back in to the target zone when Kelly pointed out we were going much faster than planned (his Fenix 5 is better at instantaneous pace than my Forerunner 405) and we were running under 5:00min/km. It felt good, so we agreed to try and stay just above 5 minutes. The trail was wide, smooth and flat and well shaded by mature trees - this was feeling OK! Kilometre 1 went in 5:26, k2 in 4:57.
Across a road at the split point we had been well briefed on, then we take a sharp left and start the climb. A brief flat road section at the top and we reached a switchback where we also had to stop at the checkpoint to dib in, sapping all momentum. This was the start of the hill proper as we took on Over Hill Road. We soon climbed out of the trees and into searing heat, slogging up the road. There were many many false summits, and it seemed to go on forever. It was feeling OK though and and we were actually maintaining a decent pace, between 6 and 7 minutes per km. I was taking on water in small sips all the way up, and at some point I decided to take on a Wiggle Mocha caffeine gel but the running was so hard I couldn't stomach eating anything. Eventually I managed to find a bit flat enough that I could take it on and wash it down, and on we went. After the face I discovered that at some point on this climb my heart rate hit 198bpm which is the highest I have ever pushed it in a race.
As we got higher we were treated to beautiful views over towards Manchester, and after about 25 minutes of hill we passed the drinks station, neglecting to stop as we both had ample water with us. Just up the road from here we turned hard left off the road and onto a trail. The gradient here ramped up significantly, hitting 20% at one point then settling back down to around 10%. At this point I was wiped out and had to resort to walking for a bit while my heart rate recovered, my breathing calmed down, and I lowered my body temperature. I was determined to start running again before we ticked over the 7km mark, and thankfully the gradient had calmed down by here. In the final push up the hill I decided that I wanted a Tour de France style summit marker at the top as a reward, and then over the crest of the hill appeared... a summit marker! I let out a laugh and relief flooded my body as we started on the downhill stretch. The terrain was still quite technical, far more reminiscent of the Langsett 10k than the White Peak Trail Run from last month, but we got some decent speed up.
With 2.5km left to go the trail joined a road again which made speed easier, and then it was down a narrow wooded track back into the blissful shade of the Sett Valley Trail. We tried to keep the pace high, accelerating past the 1km to go marker, and soon we could see trees and cars - the end was in sight. Spurred on by this we hopped back across the bridge and into the field, running fast for the line, stopping the clock at 1h13m - Silver it was! At this point I had nothing else on my mind than sitting in the shade and pulling my shoes off. The remaining water from my pack went over my head - ok it was warm from being against my back but that was lovely.
Duly cooled down we harvested the buffet, got our official results, and faffed around with the standard tasks of notifying friends we had finished safely and with a decent time, downloading and uploading GPS traces, and catching up on the activities of others as well as applauding racers over the line. We'd started in the first wave of the race but there were not many people back when we crossed the line, and few if any people overtook us once we hit the hill - surprisingly no-one overtook us while we were walking though maybe people had availed themselves of the drinks station. Eventually all runners were home, and we looked at the results. And then looked again. We'd finished 13th and 14th out of 83 runners, which was 4th and 5th in class (Male 17-39). I'm still blown away by this, it's my best race finish and I'm not sure how I did it but the official results confirm that I did.
We drove back to Sheffield for a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs courtesy of Liz, and reflected on a brutally hard race on a scorching day - temperatures of over 30 degrees centigrade were recorded. So, what's next? An easier one this time, the Greno Chase but I do keep looking at the Accelerate Gritstone Series and especially the Salt Cellar Fell Race.
