I was very much looking forward to this.
The previous day training in similar terrain did help.
Most of the time was spend in HeartRate zone 5 out of 5 for me. So it was a extreme event.
relive:
https://flow.polar.com/training/relive/1232834935Good start off uphill and very happy with the first 2 controls. A longer leg to 3 and tried to hit that put came out a little too low and had to climb 5m. Lost maybe 30 secs. Used the contour to for c4. I was aiming too far downhill and ended up at control 13 instead of c5 meaning I had to climb 40m consuming too much energy and time. lost 5.5 min but I recovered fast enough. Learning effect, not only using contour but also the compass. First time losing concentration.
Tony Cotter starting a few min behind me caught me on this and I we shared the lead until the map exchange.
Passing c11 on way to c6. He led into that, but punched 7, 8, 910, 11, 12 faster leading, felt like a good flow.
C13 was giving me grief today so Tony passed me on this again. ahead to 14 and 15 but lost concentration and got annoyed that I saw Tony and was not able to pull away no matter how hard I tried and I think that cost me a better place. I used too much time to run faster.Tony pulled away to 17 but I caught him there and lead into 18.
At this point I was ready to give up and just sit down, tired and very thirsty.
19, 20,21 were ok but now it was very slow going for me. I didn't have had the strength anymore to run uphill. Felt blisters now too ( one turned bloody) , c22 came out too high while losing concentration so could have dropped earlier. Losing about a min.
No issue with 23, 24 but no energy left in the tank. lost about a min here due to fitness. Got lucky with 26 so happy with that, but getting tired and losing concentration 27 is an easy control but I got distracted by another runner losing 45 sec.
Was happy to head into the forest to finish the race.
Winning 12 splits that day so I feel I could have completed the race with maybe 90 min considering to conserve energy or even bring gel with me for something like this.