People say this race takes about as much effort as a marathon so its a good race to see what sort of form you are in for the spring marathons. Rose completed the race in 3:44 so bang on where she wants to be. The race is 21 miles long and has some very challenging hills, terrain and you have to run with some kit given the nature of the race. To enter this race we had a window of 3 minutes from entries opening and it becoming full.
Last year I ran 2:56 in this race and I went on to do London in 2:51. This year I did 
this race in approx. 2:47 (and people have been saying the course was the wettest they have ever seen it) and I was messing about with my GoPro for a lot of the time (and I fell down twice). A good indicator for London 2017 I think. Another week and I will be easing back for London!
We have had a wet few weeks and some of the route was quite challenging as a result, particularly on the grass sections that in areas were just slippery mud. I ran in Montrail and Rose ran in Inov8 shoes, its difficult to make the best choice but both shoes did as best as could be expected. Some sections of the route are on tarmac so that further complicates the shoe selection. Road shoes would have not been good.
| Dist | Time 2017 | Time 2016 | Difference | Cumulative Improvement |
| 1 | 08:23 | 09:13 | 00:50:00 | 00:50:00 |
| 2 | 10:14 | 10:07 | 00:07:00 | 00:43:00* |
| 3 | 06:51 | 07:11 | 00:20:00 | 01:03:00 |
| 4 | 07:45 | 08:19 | 00:34:00 | 01:37:00 |
| 5 | 07:07 | 07:45 | 00:38:00 | 02:15:00 |
| 6 | 09:17 | 09:29 | 00:12:00 | 02:27:00 |
| 7 | 08:40 | 08:56 | 00:16:00 | 02:43:00 |
| 8 | 05:55 | 06:00 | 00:05:00 | 02:48:00 |
| 9 | 06:39 | 06:41 | 00:02:00 | 02:50:00 |
| 10 | 06:29 | 06:41 | 00:12:00 | 03:02:00 |
| 11 | 06:43 | 07:03 | 00:20:00 | 03:22:00 |
| 12 | 11:25 | 12:03 | 00:38:00 | 04:00:00 |
| 13 | 07:04 | 07:27 | 00:23:00 | 04:23:00 |
| 14 | 06:55 | 06:52 | 00:03:00 | 04:20:00* |
| 15 | 06:35 | 07:37 | 01:02:00 | 05:22:00 |
| 16 | 08:04 | 08:30 | 00:26:00 | 05:48:00 |
| 17 | 12:00 | 12:47 | 00:47:00 | 06:35:00 |
| 18 | 09:15 | 10:10 | 00:55:00 | 07:30:00 |
| 19 | 07:41 | 08:30 | 00:49:00 | 08:19:00 |
| 20 | 07:42 | 07:55 | 00:13:00 | 08:32:00 |
| 21 | 07:49 | 07:59 | 00:10:00 | 08:42:00 |
I finished in 20th place, last year I finished in 37th place. #Boom
My 10 minute edit of the GoPro is below to give some idea of the course.
Photo by Frank Golden
To have run over 8 minutes faster in more difficult conditions is great, I took time to enjoy the race and had some nice chats with my fellow competitors. My falls were at about 7 miles (this was ok and on mud and soft grass) and 19 miles, this was a bit annoying as I was running on a good hard trail and I had no reason to fall, I ended up cutting both knees and my right elbow. Thanks to the first aid for cleaning me up at the finish.
After the run me and Rose met up with our friend Janet and we had a lovely meal to get some energy and top up the hydration levels in a pub.