What goes up must come down, and then go up again and again!

No blog posts in ages, then three in one month.  That's what happens when all the deferred races happen at once!  This weekend saw us leaving, straight from work on Friday afternoon, to head down to the picturesque village of Sydling St Nicholas in Dorset for the infamous Giant's Head Marathon.   My entry had been deferred from 2019 - when I'd had to postpone due to Founder's Day at school, two of my friends and deferred from 2020, another had got 'lucky' when a mutual acquaintance couldn't make the race, and Husbando was down to run the 10-ish kilometre race as he has vowed never to run Giant's Head Marathon again after having a nightmare there in 2018.  Luckily I'd booked an extra room at the local pub, so we all had places to stay that didn't involve camping in the rain!

The rain stopped as we were eating breakfast on Saturday morning - which is just as well, as a rain might just have been the straw that broke the camels back and resulted in me not starting!  I'd had an upset stomach all night and was feeling a little below par.  It was just as well our hotel was close to the start as it meant I did not have to brave the portaloos!  

Elevation profile

The start was slightly different this year, rather than running along the High Street we were off road from the start.  We still got the fantastic concrete hill - which makes for a slow first mile but miles two and three are downhill, the only thing you contend with here is the long grass and uneven ground underfoot.  As this isn't by any stretch of the imagination a PB course, and because I was feeling rough, I decided to take it easy.  I was going to walk all the hills.  Normally in this race I end up walking them anyway, but this time I had decided in advance which makes it a strategy rather than a response to inadequate training.  That said, it felt like I was travelling very slowly!  It is hard to move fast when the ground is uneven and you haven't done anywhere near enough off road running in recent months.  My hamstring was still playing up, so I didn't want to push anything too hard.

I'd also forgotten just how hilly this race is!  Over a thousand metres of elevation, with some steep downhill sections that required one to be very goat like to negotiate at anything faster than mincing pace! I ran on my own for much of the race, which was fine, occasionally chatting with other runners, but mostly just swearing under my breath at yet another hill and then admiring the view from the top.  The wind seemed almost constant - and almost always it was a headwind!  It was so noisy.  

Approaching the finish, down hill on a flinty track, I was thrilled to see a friend waiting at the final turn, that gave me just the boost I needed to pick up the pace for the final few metres.  I'd been quite surprised by how, well not easy, let's say 'comfortable' I had found the race.  I'd had no intention of running fast, or pushing myself and yet I managed to run my fastest Giant's Head Marathon and, alarm from a painful right leg, felt fine afterwards.  I certainly wasn't doing the post marathon stagger that had been a feature of my Stockholm, Boston and London!  On checking back through past results, it seems that this was a course PB by about 10 minutes!

As usual, the support from the villagers was fabulous.  The race, along with the 10k, the Bell Races and (new this year) the half marathon take over the village for an entire weekend.  They provide breakfast in the village hall on Saturday, an evening meal on Friday and Saturdays as well as teas and cakes all day.  The Greyhound Inn, with a new landlord who took over last week, was our base for the weekend - they rose to the challenge of runners who wanted early breakfasts.  We decided not to take part in the Bell Race on the Sunday, so had a long, leisurely breakfast instead.  

I think, despite saying on my journey down to Dorset on Friday, that I would not do this race again, I will be back. The hotel is booked....