Thursday 15 July 2010

Three days to my first ever championship race


It's Holme Moss this Sunday, and it's an English championship counter. That means all the proper athletes will be there. So instead of being 15th, like I sometimes am at the normal low-key races I do, I'll probably be 150th.

I was planning to have done lots of recces of the course so I would have been prepared, but I haven't got round to it. So instead, I'm hoping to follow people in front of me. I was also hoping to have done lots of stamina training, as the race is 17 miles. I've done a fair bit, but as always, not as much as I would have wanted.

My plan is to do a few more championship counters in the coming years, so this is like a warm up for next year. I only hope I don't end up as the stumbling mess I have been at the end of my previous long race attempts.

My target time is about 3 hours 15 minutes. Last year that would have put me 12th (because it wasn't a champs counter last year). I'm hoping that stating my target time to the world (or at least the 7 people who read my blog) will spur me on towards the end of the race. Watch this space...

In Mrs Noel news, she was looking forward to doing Black Rocks Fell Race, but I googlemapped [it's a verb now, honest] the wrong address so she didn't get to the race in time. Luckily she had a 45-minute drive home to calm down so didn't then hack me to death with a spoon. We spent a few minutes tonight seeing where we think she would have finished.