Lesson 1 – How to run a 20 mile race

On Sunday Amy Inchley travelled down to Surrey for the Spitfire 20 mile road race at Dunsfold Aerodrome, where they film Top Gear. She planned her run beforehand based on running at her marathon pace of 8:15 all the way and if there was energy left at the end she could pick up the pace a touch to build a bit of confidence.

The rural two lap course contained three hills that were distinct but not horrendous between three and eight miles. The weather was just about perfect for a long run, although somewhat dreary for the few spectators who had come along. It was a relatively small field for the event with only about 270 runners, and Amy started near the back as she was in no hurry to kick off.

Despite starting near the back, Amy went off at a pace a little quicker than she had planned, as she averaged 8:09 for the first five miles as she settled into the race, that was really a training run for the Amsterdam marathon in October. Around six miles she met Jeff who she ran with and chatted to for a while until about 14 miles. During this period, their pace was remarkably consistent, with every mile being between 7:58 and 8:12 at an average of 8:04.

After 15 miles Amy was feeling pretty comfortable and so happily continued on her merry way, despite the weather gradually deteriorating from drizzle into stair rods at the end. The weather clearly inspired Amy as she picked up the pace for the last mile to finish with a 7:37 and a total of 2:41:24 and four five mile splits of 40:44, 40:20, 40:22 & 40:00.

Lesson 2 – How not to run a 20 mile race

Andy drove to Surrey on Sunday morning and felt pretty relaxed about the upcoming 20 mile race after having won the MK parkrun 5K the day before. He knew that all he had to do was trot round the route in 6:30-6:40 and he'd be fine as this was well inside the sub 3 hour marathon pace that he is after in Amsterdam.

However, Andy is pretty new to running, having only been running for about 26 years and so struggles to sort out his pacing! When he went through the first mile in 6:22, did he think; "Oops. I need to slow down"? No he did the next two in  6:11 and 6:10, d***head!

Having gone through the first five miles in 31:25, he was feeling good and despite knowing full well that there was 15 miles to go, he picked up the pace a touch and did the next five in 31:07. By the time he got to 13 miles, he was finally back to the pace he had originally planned and for some strange reason was starting to tire!

The final five miles started with an unplanned pitstop and just got worse as he died a horrible death on Surrey's rural roads including an 8:51 mile through 19. The final five took Andy 40 minutes and was not exactly how he had foreseen the finish, particularly as Amy keeps reminding him that she was significantly faster over the last mile!