By Jane Sauer

First thing on Sunday 13^th March it was cold, damp and overcast, but not raining (yet)!  As I forced down my cereal I felt physically sick, as I was so nervous about running my first ever 20 mile race.  Fred had decided not to run, as he'd unfortunately not been too well during the week, which made me the only LBAC member running the Finchley 20.  As I started to look for excuses as to why I might not be able to go after all, I had to have a little word with myself to remind me that this was actually just another training run (and a very important one to show me how close to, or far from my target of running a four hour marathon in four weeks time I really was).  Training runs had so far convinced me that I was a long way off target and my estimated time to complete this race was 3 hours 10 (or possibly even 15) minutes, although I really wanted to do it in 3 hours.

Thankfully, I bumped into Matthew Mitchell (Anne's other half) in the clubhouse about 20 minutes before the start, who was there with a couple of other Leighton Fun Runners, so I had some people to chat to and help take my mind off that fact that I was so scared.  As we lined up at the start, I was finally feeling pretty relaxed about the whole situation and had decided that although sub 3 hours would be lovely, just getting to the finish unscathed would suffice (and give me a PB regardless, since I'd never raced over such a ridiculous distance before).  Right on cue, this was also when the rain started, which continued on and off, at varying intensities, throughout the whole race!

The course was four laps of a 5 mile loop, which was not flat by any means, but equally not what I'd call hilly after doing most of my training runs in and around the Berkhamsted area (anyone who's done the Berko half before will know what I'm talking about)!  I had been warned that the four lap situation would be mentally challenging, however, I personally found it very helpful as it broke the distance up and gave me more digestible targets, at the same time as allowing me to easily gauge my progress on the way round… some of you will know that I'm not very technical and if I ever remember to start (or even wear) my Garmin, it's unlikely that I'll subsequently look at it! 

Anyway, the aim was to stick at 9 minute miles all the way, so I wanted to do each lap in 45 minutes.  I was very careful not to set off too fast and quickly settled into a really comfortable pace. I knew it was slightly quicker that 9 min per mile, but thought it would be a good idea to get a few minutes ahead to allow for any mishaps later.  I clocked 42 minutes for the first lap and decided that would be a good time to slow to my intended 9 pace and stay there… this didn't happen as I was so comfortable doing what I was doing, so after 2 laps I was at 1:23:30 (ish).  Although I was still feeling really strong and comfortable at this pace, I was now a little nervous that I was going to pay for it later and so fully intending to slow it down. Once again it didn't really happen (I'm a stubborn old bird!) and I finished the third lap at 2 hours 6 minutes. 

By this point I was starting to feel it a little bit, but here was the beauty of the four lap course for me, as I just thought to myself that it was only another 5 miles and I knew exactly where every single mile marker was, so I just ran positively towards them.  I did of course slow down a fair bit on the final lap as my body started to hurt more and more, but I still managed a flat out sprint finish to take a couple more places and ended up with a time of 2:51:35, which not only smashed my estimated time by about 20 minutes, but also restored my confidence in my ability to manage a four hour marathon in 4 weeks time. Bring on Brighton!