Race Report: Meon Valley Plod

After waking at 7 to the sound of heavy rain, I checked the race website to see if there was any "cancelled due to severe rain" notices but nothing.  I was going to have to run.

I arrived at the Sustainability Centre in Meon, south of Petersfield at around 9:15, plenty of time before the 10:30 start. It was still raining but not as hard as before.  The main car-park was closed due to mud which was an indication of the conditions to come.

We walked down to the start of the race and after the briefing we were off.  It starts in a field, up a hill and I was quickly out of breath.  It took me ages to feel comfortable, probably not until after the first big hill at mile 3.  I had the sniffles so that might have been it.  It might have also been the 8:40 minute mile pace we were doing.

The conditions were as bad as I expected.  The mud was deep in places, there were large puddles of freezing water that you couldn't avoid and in the fields, you picked up huge amounts of soil that made you feel like you had anvils for shoes.

Having said all that, it was great fun.  The route is varied and great to look at, there was a real feeling of everyone in it together and the cake and jelly babies at the water stations were very welcome.

After getting into my pace, I felt fine and pootled along until mile 11.  My knee was ok which I was delighted with.  I did walk down one very steep hill as I remember it hurting my knee last year.  I began to feel tired and had to concentrate to keep going.

I got to mile 15 which was Butser hill, a giant lump that had to be walked up and then to the final water station at mile 16.  A cake and a Mars Bar piece gave me a boost and I sailed down the hill and on to mile 18.  The last three miles were so tough.  My legs were like jelly because of the mud and the track we were on was really rough.  It was a long straight path that seemed to go on and on.  I wasn't going quick but I refused to stop so I passed quite a few people.

I crossed the final junction and kept going the last half-a-mile to the finish.  I was reasonably pleased with my time based on the conditions.  I felt at least as strong as last year when I did 3:30.

Time: 3hrs 55mins
Place: 162nd (top half, just!)
Total Finishers: 332
First: 2hrs 34mins
Last: 6hrs 16mins

Its going to be an odd week this week as I'm working at the school and my wife is away on business so I pretty much can't do anything for 5 days.  I'll just have to have a big weekend.