The New Forest Marathon served several purposes.  First of all, it was a day out in the New Forest, a place I love.  Secondly, I’m getting ready for Downslink in a few weeks and I needed time on my feet, but most importantly it turned out to be an exercise in pacing for me and a running buddy.

I have been kind of mentoring/advising and training with one of the ladies from my club as she prepares for Downlinks (38 miles).   Pacing is one of the most important things to master for race day, especially when it comes to going well beyond marathon distance.  So, today was about working with Steph to get the pace right, keeping her slow.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the race to be honest.  I didn’t really read much about it, apart from the words ‘New Forest’.

It was a lot bigger than I had expected.  There were several different distances to cater for all tastes.  There was a race village with food and clothes stalls.

Registration was very quick and easy, which was a bit of a surprise, given that we arrived 90 minutes after the instructions said we had to be there.  The advice to arrive 3 hours before race start was obviously excessive.  We had set off at 4.30am as it was.

There was a group warm up in the arena, a quick chance for a group club photo and then we were off.

So, this was the plan.  Run the first 0.8 of each mile at around 11 minute mile pace and then walk the last 0.2 to get the pace down towards around the 11 minute 45 seconds per mile pace.

It seems weird.  We were pretty much at the back.  I’m by no means a front runner.  More midfield and probably more like sitting in front of the back four, to use a football analogy.  However, it was really important to keep the discipline to get Steph as far as we could before it started to take it’s toll.  That’s what we did.  We also slowly picked off the other runners who had not paced it as well as we did.  We finished in 5 hours 9 minutes and there was still something in the tank.  Mission accomplished.  Over 5 hours of Steph practicing her pacing and a proper confidence boost ahead of Downslink.  For me, it was another 5 hours on my feet and the end of Downslink preparations.  Not sure that I will go for my course PB yet, we’ll see how I feel at the end of the taper.

So, the race itself.  I found both positives and negatives in this race.  The marshals were lovely and the kids who manned the aid stations were brilliant.  The forest sections were just brilliant.  However, there was a lot of road.  Too much.  Maybe I didn’t read the race preview, but there was a lot more than I had expected.  That was a disappointment.

These are the pictures of the forest areas.

That’s it really.  I had a great day out and I’m really pleased things are working out for Steph.  I must say that I wouldn’t head back to do this again though.  Too many events out there to do and too much road and traffic on this one.

So, it’s 2 more weeks until my 3rd Downslink.  I’d love to beat the 2 times from before, 6 hours 55 minutes.  Time will tell.

Here’s the medal shot with all 4 of us in the car as it was raining heavily in the end.  Cracking runs from Nick and Karen as well, ahead of Downslink,

And it was all powered by plants.  Woo hoo.

Finally, not only was there a spooky tree, there was a spooky forest.