Beachy Head 10k

I haven’t written anything about training since finishing LEJOG back in July, so it’s about time I write up what I’ve been doing.

Yesterday (Saturday 27) I raced the Beachy Head 10k (which is more like 9.3km but that’s not as catchy) down in sunny Eastbourne.

Matt, who went on to finish third, signed me up as a birthday "present" and I have to be honest I wasn’t looking forward to it. The timing of the race – a week before my “A” race (more on that later) – wasn’t ideal and I hadn’t done an awful lot of off-road training, other than a semi-regular 10k run around Knole Park with Ironman Tom. I decided to treat it as a “B” race – I'd race all out but wouldn't taper or make any exceptions. E.g. I commuted 40 miles by bike the day before like normal.

Regardless of how I felt about the race I’d only ever miss it if injured, and with not even a niggle to worry about, I’d no choice but to show up and see what happened. Over the summer Matt mentioned a possible need for trail shoes. I had every intention of buying a pair until I had delayed the purchase so much that I just didn’t get a pair. I’d have to make do with my racing flats that have recorded me PBs in Bexhill, Marrakech, and Hastings (Bexhill and Hastings very much the bread in every sense in that PB sandwich!)

Woke up early on race morning, had some water and considered breakfast. I didn’t feel hungry at all, so decided to race fasted. The cheese from the previous evening would have to power me over some of the Seven Sisters!

Route profile

The start of the race, like all others, was a bit all over the place with people sprinting the first fifteen seconds to get to the foot of the climb. I tried to take it easy, and was soon passing people going up stairs, some had even resorted to walking... You can't win a race in the first few minutes but you can certainly lose it or, if you weren't realistically in contention, add minutes to your time.

The picture doesn't do the hill's gradient justice

By the top of the hill I had no idea which position I was in but I was close to the first female and Matt was still in my sights (something which has never happened before!) though I knew the distance between us would only increase. There were never any issues with my footing up the hill, or for the rest of the race. I think I got away with that and might even have had an advantage...

The second and third miles were actually quite nice. Almost all steady downhill through fields, they're a great opportunity to pick up the pace, though I felt unable to stop myself going backwards. The first three women went ahead and I never saw them again, as did a couple of guys. I just couldn't handle their pace.

At the halfway point, having failed to grab a handful of jelly babies but succeeded in taking a cup of water, I found myself with two other guys and fourth-placed female behind. We dropped one of the guys but the three of us would stay together until the last downhill.

After the gradual downhill the course's difficulty kicked up a notch, with every hill followed by a technical descent which meant the legs were either working extremely hard climbing or taking a pounding descending.

With approximately one mile to go (I knew the course to be 5.8 miles from my Strava research) I tried to kick and pull away from the other two. I pulled away a matter of metres but never enough to break either of them and, true to form, they dropped me on the final descent. Somebody else (not the guy we originally dropped) also came past me. I was disappointed but didn't feel there was anything I could do, so just tried to finish strong.

Finally, mercifully, the course brings you back around to the hill on which we started, and I feel I coped well with the steep gradient, bounding down the steps.

I finished in 43:32, 22nd place.

Some Strava segment details, all out of >1,000 runners, including marathoners:

First hill: 27th

Last kilometre, all downhill: 25th

Last hill downhill: 19th

As for my training since LEJOG, I have cycled on average 140 miles a week over 8 hours, and run 25 miles a week over 4 hours. 12 hours of training per week seems to be a sweet spot between being logistically manageable, enough to elicit results, and not too much that it  becomes a chore.

What's next?

Next Saturday (November 3) is the Box Hill Ballbuster duathlon which consists of five laps of an 8 mile circuit (one run, third bike, one run), so 16 miles of running with over an hour of hard cycling in between. The target is 3:15, with an hour for each of the runs, 1:10 for the bike, and the rest spent in transition. We will see...