Eyam Half Marathon

After deciding to enter a series of club champs races back in March. The day of this peak district classic finally dawned. Having already arranged to travel to this race with Malcolm, I discovered that he was suffering with a knee injury and unable to race. So I issued my appeal for car sharers/opponents on the yahoo groups site, unfortunately without any success. So come the day rather than travel alone. I took Malcom up on his kind offer to drive down as his daughter was doing the fun run and the family would happily spend a couple of hours looking round Eyam. We arrived in Eyam in good time to see final preparations being made by the race organiser. We impressively enough included a large digital clock being placed on a scaffold gantry above the finish line. Eyam itself was a lovely little village with the surrounding countryside leaving no doubt as to the challenging nature of the impending race and the smell of freshly barbecued bacon an unwanted distraction to an empty but race ready stomach.

Having a sore left ankle from the blackstone edge fell race i was concerned as to how it would hold up to some undulating bitumen pounding. Well I thought I could jog round for an easy 30 club championship points. Any hopes of a gentle spin round were soon dashed when I saw arguably my most well matched club rival Dez who had the slight edge on me in our last battle at the Buxworth 5. After a spot of light hearted pre race banter it was time to run. I decided to try out my new more mile compression socks and applied liberal amounts of ibruprofen gel to my ankle.

The race started with a steady climb for 400 metres before losing all the height back to the village before the tough climb for the first 2 miles of the race. A very tough start to a race of this distance and felt like I was running "choke out" which made it difficult to settle into a rhythm. Once the ascent was gained and the race started heading towards Great Hucklow and Abney I managed to settle my breathing down and manage to get my speed back towards low 7 minute mile pace. I was ahead of Dez and starting to enjoy the race with my ankle only casusing me limited discomfort.

The race started a steady descent after around 7 miles towards the derwent valley at Leadmill at around the 9 mile point. This I knew meant the real test of the race the steep climb up Eyam Moor heading in the direction of Grindleford  and then on towards the finish. I was starting to flag and found a few people catching me on the very steep climb. Just as I was starting to dig deep into my reserves for the final push to the finish around the 10 mile mark I saw Dez on my left shoulder. My greeting of "Did I not want to see you at this stage" was probably not the friendliest greeting I could have made to club teammate. After trying to hold pace with Dez for the next half mile or so I could feel the invisible elastic between us starting to stretch and given that there was still more climbing I realised I couldn't maintain the pace so I had to steady myself a little and the elastic broke and Dez pulled further and further away. I hadn't yet given up hope but realised it would take Dez hitting a flat spot and me getting a third wind if there was any chance of getting close. As it was I managed to grind it out up the remainder of the climb while holding my position in the race and steeled myself for the steep final descent into Eyam for the final mile. I was definitely keeping myself going with visions of how i was going to relax after the race when I finally crossed the line in just over 1 hours 51 minutes. Happy enough with my time on what must be one of the toughest half marathons out there. Much harder than the old local werneth low half marathon classic.

I spotted Dez and congratulated him on his strong finish and I was even more impressed when I realised he had taken over 2 minutes out of me in the final 3 miles of the race which enabled him to take over 30 runners in the final quarter of the race. Chapeau Dez!
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As usual once the race was over all the aches and pains that my body had suppressed voiced their displeasure I realised i could barely put any weight on my left ankle and had blisters on the sole of my right that make walking a slow and painful process.

A great race, well organised and marshalled by friendly volunteers and plentiful and much needed water stops at regular intervals. A deserving if under represented addition to our club championships. 29 points in the bag its going to take some foam rollering for my legs to return to normal. The compression socks definately helped minimise the usual calf pain that I can feel on steep climbs and longish road races. The might be the emperors new clothes but at under 3 pound a pop they will be used again in races and I will be ordering some more.

Thanks for the lift and company to Malcolm and family (a cracking 7th by his daughter in the fun run) and thanks for the duel as always to Dez. 2-1 Until the next time.....