Sedbergh Hills Race
August 24th, 2009 by Andy NicollIsn’t it funny how the human brain can delete things from its memory.
I’m reading a book by James Cracknell and Ben Fogle and in it they talk about how when they were rowing the Atlantic James was bumping his gums saying it was just too hard and he wanted to stop and the whole idea was crazy - then just a few weeks after completing the crossing he said to Ben that he wished he was back in the boat.
The truth is after the passage of time we start to remember only the good bits and we file the nasty bits in the drawer marked - “don’t go in here!”
In some ways this happened to me yesterday at Sedbergh - last year I did the race for the first time and whilst I blew around half way round I actually enjoyed the race and always planned on returning this year to do it justice.
Before the race I’d been thinking that the stated climb of 6000 feet was a bit over egged - my fuzzy memory only recalled a big climb to start with then a rough patch up a boggy hillside followed by a big descent and a long steady climb up to the last checkpoint from where it was all down hill. Well all of this is absolutely right but over the past 12 months I seem to have permanently erased all the other massive climbs and descents that come in between!!!
I kept finding myself on a track I remembered but then looking ahead at a huge mountain and thinking - surely this wasn’t here last here - when the truth is it will have been there last year and for a good few million years before that too.
Anyway, I got round fine this year as I knew it was a race that needed to be paced carefully in order to make the most of the very long steady final climb and the fast and super steep finish.
Despite the weather which will have slowed things up quite a bit I came in 7 minutes faster than last year in 2 hours and 41 minutes (the winner did 2 hours 21). Not that great when you consider the course record is 1 hour 57 but then again I’ve been advised since that the chap that set it ran 6th in the Olympic marathon.
My Bingley team mates and travel companions Andy Jebb and Steve Fry both had great runs with Andy coming home in a fantastic 10th place (I think he’s been digging into the family gene pool again) and Steve coming home just a short while after me.
I wore my heart rate monitor for the race just for fun and was quite staggered by the output.
Over the 2 hours and 41 minutes I AVERAGED a whopping 93% of maximum HR and also reached my max of 184 BPM at some point on the course. I’m quite pleased with this as it shows just how endurance fit I am as theory says that above 90% you reach your anaerobic threshold - the point at which your body is consuming more oxygen than it can take in - and activity cannot be sustained for too long above this point - I reckon 2 hours 41 mins is quite a while!!!
What with also buring 2500 calories on the way round I can tell you that my chicken curry and rice when I got home never even touched the sides…..
Next stop Dentdale English Championship Fell Race - this coming weekend.
