This year, I was slightly later arriving in Balmoral than before and was directed to the upper car park, a bit closer to the Castle. I ate my lunch in the car listening to Radio Four and putting my gear on and at 12:35 began to stroll towards the race area. I used the toilet at the visitor centre and wandered round to the start. I positioned myself well back from the front runners again, thinking that like last year I'd used the psychological boost of overtaking the slower runners to spur me on.
The starting hooter went, and we traipsed through the start arch. I moved to the grassy verge and began my overtaking which went well for the first mile or so, but quite quickly slowed down. Either I was being slow, or the runners ahead of me were faster.
The trail moves from tarmac to trail and soon passes a water station after 5k where I dumped my gum and stopped to drink. One of the good things about this race is they use half-filled paper cups. This means you can gulp quickly, and not feel too guilty about dumping the cup, although there are bins.
Onto the woodland path and now I started to struggle, losing some places as I tried to stabilise my pace. At the top of the climb at 10km, I actually stopped to walk and eat a gel. At the same time, a group of five talk/runners overtook me. I couldn't let them go and quickly chased after them on the downhill and settled on their heels, trying hard to remain.
On the climb up to 15k, that group had dispersed with three of them ahead, but me and two others playing cat and mouse frequently overtaking each other. I was fast on the descent to the river, but had to walk on the ascents up to the final water station.
On the easy descent towards the sting-in-the-tail, I actually managed to gain a couple of places, but as per usual lost these on the hill climb where I resorted to walking as others plodded past. I managed to smile for the camera though!
The tumbling descent back to the tarmac was as fun as I'd remembered it but there was no chance of a sprint finish as I was completely spent. Some fella overtook me in the final 50m too.
I got a PB by 20seconds surprisingly, as in 2018 this was 2weeks before Copenhagen, so I ought to have been in top form. I was pleased!
01:53:17 107 / 965
