Cranleigh 21

The Cranleigh 21 is an established, pre-London (and other marathons happening in April) event. The benefits to be gained from it are as much in the routine pre and during the race and miles in the legs as time it takes to get round. I’ve heard stories of people having brilliant runs at Cranleigh, but never making it to the start line of which ever 26.2 miler they’re ultimately aiming for. Simon, the guide I ran with today and who I will be with at London, once came forth, not an achievement to be sniffed at by any stretch of the imagination, but the effort took too much out of him and injury meant London never happened.

With all this in mind, as I lined up for the start, it was an unusual feeling where the first objective was to come out in one piece, the time it took was almost irrelevant. By the 9 AM start, there were objectives for the day already achieved, not least, breakfast.

I used to see quarter to 6 on a Sunday morning quite a lot, but that would be heading for bed rather than getting out of it. With the race off at 9 I wanted to eat by 6:30, no later than two and a half hours before. What I ate was today’s big experiment, as luck would have it I don’t especially enjoy the sort of food recommended for runners to start the day – cereal, porridge, banana and the like. I don’t mind oats though, and it was suggested during the week that Flapjack, with its combination of oats and sugar, might do the trick. The marginally more time consuming part of the meal involved the creation of a fruit salad - basically dumping some cut up strawberries, oranges and grapes in a bowl – and with my essential day starter of black tea (drunk out of my Brentford are going to Wembley mug), I and the day were ready to face one another.

The other consumption issue which needed to be resolved today was that of during the race. I’ve been using these Power Bar gels (which are just about palatable) but up to now the necessity to stop for water during a training run (I don’t carry a water bottle when running) has meant I was yet to use one of these gels whilst moving. The hurdle of keeping going whilst squirting blackcurrent flavoured goo into the mouth and not getting it all over my face has now been crossed.

And the time? – For what it’s worth.

I did 21 miles in 2 hours 51 and 20 seconds which, my dubious mental arithmetic thinks, is 8 minute 10 mile pace average.

The race is made up of a nine mile loop, followed by one of six miles which the runners do twice. It is predominantly run on roads and paths through the surrey countryside, with short stretches through the small town that gives the event its name. Unlike the London Marathon, this race isn’t flat, you would describe the course as undulating. It’s reasonable to call this a slightly harder twenty one miles than the London Marathon, although this field is far less crowded than London will be, meaning it’s easier to get started.

The objective was to aim for 8 minute mile pace for the distance, something which was achieved in the early stages. A combination of feeling so comfortable, and some downhill stretches that inevitably encourage me to increase the pace, meant that at 9 miles I was around 30 seconds quicker than I was aiming for. A bit of self control and, eventually, fatigue meant the pace dropped a little.

So the third of the four race plan is now done, following Tadworth Ten and the Wokingham Half. With London only four weeks away, this will also be my longest run of the training period. So an important milestone reached as I prepare for my first marathon. It also meant I avoided travelling to Warrington to endure what turned out to be a massacre of monumental proportions for Harlequins at the hands of the Wolves. I saw Quins get thumped there last year, and although I thought this would be by far our toughest game of the season, I never imagined it would be anything like that considering the good form we’ve been in. We’ll just have to use Hull as a punch bag to get that out of the system next Sunday.