Entered this many months ago as a club champs race and selling out fast (and not hugely strong entry) - had hoped I'd have done some proper winter training by now and have some road speed but this autumn hasn't quite turned out that way.
Put a fairly consistent effort in throughout - ok on the up at the start but really starting to struggle as the wind picked up. Not nearly as strong as I've known it, but steady 14mph appeared to make a lot more difference than I expected it to. Pace didn't improve as much as I wanted coming down the other side - and the 2 people who'd be sat behind me in the wind went off ahead.
Gave it a good try to catch up on the hill coming back, and got close, wind advantage didn't kick in until half way across. Feet burning quite a bit, and tiring, for the last 2k into finish. Think this is where vaporflys come in useful (at least 2 in front of me had them).
End position 9th of 367 finishers. That's inside my target of 10th (had thought I was 10th), but still a little disappointed with the time. Had around 30 as a target, and 31 as acceptable. For the effort put in really want a lot faster than 4 min/k.
KM splits
4:01
4:10
3:58
4:08
4:10
3:52
3:42
3:46
(+0:12 for last 60m)
Hoping Sunday's race is more my thing!
https://www.strava.com/activities/2883801067