So something is working, trying to run a bit faster in and out to work and the Tuesday Inverleith interval sessions – otherwise known as running in squares and watching Messrs Reid, Flannagan and Whitlie’s butts in the increasing far-far distance. Both have had a positive effect on my pace even though I am usually the last in each interval. OK, so the D33 isn’t a hill race but basically a long marathon on tarmac and a bit or trail at 33 miles along an out and back flat course with the odd slope to climb on an old railway line along the river Dee. A few weeks later in the year and it would be a really pretty tree lined route with spring growth, but in March it is just nice.
There were no other Carnethy shirts at the start that I could see as Graham Nash had to drop out at short notice due to boosting the black market for cars… a sad case. There were a few friendly faces from other Edinburgh clubs and Seona Burnett looking glamourous and focussed. I wanted to see if my pace training could work into my pretty good endurance, so my strategy (decided on the start line) was to run the first quarter at Interval pace, then high tempo for the second quarter to the turn point, regroup with Muller rice and Lucozade then probably suffer for the third quarter and feel bad (this happened the last two years), regroup at the ≤ checkpoint with more Muller rice and Lucozade, and then try and up the pace to the 30 mile point and then try and run the last 3 miles again at back at interval pace.
That’s what I did and it went to plan pretty well, apart from feeling terrible at mile 10 and ejecting the Lucozade at mile 19, and sticking to water in the second half of the race. Strava tells me I beat my previous D33 bests for the ∏m , 30km, 50km and about was 8mins faster than last year finishing in 40th /338 finishers in 4hr 20mins 58secs. What did I learn – Intervals and pace running makes you run faster, food and drink is good even if you lose some, tarmac hurts but finishing fast is a great thing when you nip past 7 people who took you in the third leg.
Ross Houston from Central AC smashed the course record by 19 mins in 3hr 10mins. Seona Burnett got a PB in 5hr 10 mins in 152nd. I got first (only) Carnethy, which is a first!
Results: http://deesidewayultra.webnode.com/
Mark Hartree