Grimsthorpe Half Marathon
Date: 4th August Location: Grimsthorpe Castle Estate Lincolnshire Distance: 13.1 miles Terrain: 50% tarmac, 15% Grass trail, 35% limestone trail Navigation: marked course Weather: Sunny 27 degs
Well as you all know I competed in the Grim Reaper Ultra marathon which was 100 mile on the 2nd – 3rd August report HERE, So this race was just over 24hrs after that one..
After the Ultra I went back to the B&B and had a iced bath for 15 mins and then had breakfast and then crashed in bed, woke up about 4pm…I think and when for a walk with the owners and their dogs to stretch my legs a bit as I didn’t want them to stiffen up, came back had some more food and then did about 1 hrs worth of stretching in my room which really loosened me up and I felt great afterwards.
So after an early night I woke up and had breakfast and was ready to run a half marathon, breakfast went down a lot better than I thought it would too. I got my Kit together and made my way to the castle to register… Keith (The organiser of both races) was there and asked me “how my legs were feeling”, “ not to bad” I replied. So after registering, getting changed and a short warm up run I made my way over to the start…Rita a lady that had competed in the 70 miler ultra ask what time I was hopping for, I said “ I have know idea as I have never run done a 100 mile run then and half marathon so close together.
So at 10:30 am me and my heavily taped foot stet off I felt pretty good to start with and the weather was really nice..happy to say it was a little bit cooler than it was during the ultra. The race follows part of the same loop course as the ultra but with a slight diversion and also there is a little loop to start with around the lake of 3.1 miles to make up the distance. I was funny that during the race I was thinking to myself that this is the only loop there are no more loop as with the ultra it was a long time before you said this is the last loop.. The other thing was..I went past the place where one of the dibbers stations was on the ultra and before I got there I went to get my plastic key out…and then thought…I don’t have one..IT IS ONLY ONE LOOP SILLY !!
The race as a whole went well and I was happy with my time, although I would have liked to get under 2hrs…but hey…
TIME: 2:08:12
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