Running race 5:39:00 [2] 17.4 mi (19:29 / mi) +2370m 13:41 / mi
Jura - Plan was to run the first 3 summits easy so arriving at the paps as fresh as possible, then run them hard and see what happened. I wanted sub 5 with a possibly optimistic goal of 4hrs 30.
Going up the first hill was struggling with sore airways, wanted to quit 2/3 of the way up but figured this was down to the start being uphill and told myself to man up and get on with it. It's a pretty standard affair for me in the first few miles of a race.
The next 2 summits are relatively rolling with a good bit of descent on which I got back on track, overtaking a lot of people who must have set off excitedly and making my way into 4th. I took out a bit of distance on Kirsty and Jenny approaching pap 1 and set off up with Gavin.
I wasn't moving as well as I'd hoped, but I was very surprised when I looked over my shoulder to see Kirsty and Jenny approaching quickly. They passed me and I felt like I was stood still....about 5mins later I worked out why and took my inhaler. Threw myself off the summit regaining some ground but pap 2 turned into a disaster, I really struggled to keep moving, having to take a sit down and admire the view at one point. Pretty glad I did, it looks mental if you get a chance to look back at what you are actually running on!
Eventually summited, figured the descent would be better and set off. I was wrong, reduced to walking even for downhills now and breathing really bad. I walked down to the col (best moment of the race was managing this and still beating a Carnethy man down the hill) where I had a sit down and got the map out to see if there was an escape route....after 3 or 4 mins of umming and ahhing I decided it was a more sensible idea (and that sounds ludicrous given the size of the hills and my lack of ability to ascend at that point) to continue on the route as I had no idea what the ground around the side of pap3 was like and I didn't want matters to get worse while I was on my own on a scree slope or bog which noone knew I was on....
With a bit of abuse from the dpfr guys that had caught me by now I got over the top and managed a bit of a 'run' down the scree on the other side...well I overtook people anyway (I think this was just a matter of me being able to descend on this terrain). By now matters had settled out, lungs bad but not worsening as long as I walked very slowly. It'd be rude not to visit the last summit so I crawled my way up (literally in parts) and then began the very long return to Craighouse, made longer by a real inability to run for more than 30s stretches across the bog. This improved slightly on the road but was still a stop start affair. So relieved to finish, gave the finishline staff a slight scare after I attempted to run the last 200m, took a while until I could breathe enough to take my inhaler, after which I sat on the floor for an hour watching people finish and steadily sorting the breathing out.
So, not the race I wanted at all, I need to get better at distinguishing between tight chest at start of race that will ease and one that spells disaster, not entirely sure how. That could have been a complete disaster very easily as there aren't many escape options once you're on the paps.
At least my legs are nice and fresh for next weekend...hopefully my lungs will be good to go given a couple more days....