Ceres 8


Ceres 8 is an eight-mile race with 545 feet of elevation. Most of the elevation comes in the first two miles...

I hadn't run this before so asked Ron how to race it. He told me it was a tough one because you couldn't afford to overcook the first part but also couldn't afford to get left behind on the first climb. I think the bit about not getting left behind was me-specific. I'm not good at hills, at least not the going up part. 

The weather was pretty much perfect for an evening race: 18℃, a light westerly wind and 64% humidity. Yes, my numbers obsession is getting worse. We had run 2 hrs 45 minutes on the Sunday and my Monday fartlek had been pretty sluggish (7.35 miles in 60 minutes) so I made sure to get in at least 1500 calories during the day. My morning 20 minutes was incredibly slow...

The race started on the village green before heading out the back of Ceres and onto the long, long drag up to the two-mile point. Nicola Duncan disappeared ahead very quickly. I was expecting this and had already decided that there were two races. Nicola and then the rest of us. She went on to break the female course record and only two men managed to beat her, so this was a pretty accurate assessment! Jen got ahead of me for a while but I managed to pull away about 100m into the first real climb. This surprised me as I was expecting to be behind on the hill. The climb does go on forever but it's mostly treelined and smells nice. I lost my focus on the long middle stretch. It's gently undulating but mostly up. If I had known the course better - or at all - I would have pushed on a bit more. I had found myself adrift though with around 80 metres of empty road in front and behind me, and my mind was wandering.

I love running downhill, so the final third of the race was good fun. There are a couple of small climbs towards the end but there were marshals at their summits shouting encouragement. I had a brief moment of panic when I saw a ponytail ahead before realising that it was one of the relay runners!

Ron had advised taking the brakes off on the descent. This certainly saved me from DOMS the next day. It's also a great piece of advice as it's a really simple thing to focus on (and keep focusing on!).

I finished second (female) in 53.42, 36th overall (out of 149). 

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