A Journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step

Compton 40 2006

I decided that it would be good for my multi-day ultra training to do some big mileage weekends.

I reckoned this would be a good Saturday route as the first 20 miles wouldn't be a problem with other people to follow and marshaled and the second 20 miles I had run a few weeks before with a friend to check where the route went.
I planned to run the route with Gobi off the Runners World forum, he promised to slow down and I would speed up to his slow pace
I went to the AGM of the Trial Runners Association in Compton and camped on the school playing field.
It rained alot on Friday night which didn't bode well for the following day, but it dawned sunny and clear and not cold.
I met up with Gobi and Snap, who had also entered the 40 but was only planning to do the 20, so would come around with us then split of at the 19 mile point while we carried on around the second half.
We started at the back of the field as we were not 'racing' this event. We walked through the initial woods behind a queue of runners who were also slowed to a walk. I got quite warm for the first few hours in my thermal and Ron Hills, but then it clouded over and the temperature was more reasonable.

Photo's by richK

Approaching richK and Trinity

We posed for richK to take a photo of us with Trinity near Steatley.

Trinity, Snap, Gobi and me

The 3 of us continued together and despite some persusion from Gobi and I, Snap was not going the carry on with us on the 40.
We parted from Snap at the split point and we carried on at about the same pace, possibly slight faster, but not by much.
This is where my memory of the recent run of the 2nd half should have paid off but proved to be hopelessly inaccurate, or non-existant. Fortunately Gobi spotted the yellow arrows that marked the route so we did not have to rely on my memory.
We saw alot more people running the 40 than I expected, we passed quite a few, one of whom, Peter (also RW), lived so close to the route that he found the draw of stopping in comfort too much, instead of staying out for the next 15 miles.
One runner kept passing us but then we would pass him quite soon afterwards, eventually he stopped passing us as we left him behind.
We finished in 7:30, and our 'sprint finish' was at the same pace we had sustained for the whole route.
So thanks to Gobi who showed me that I could actually go a bit faster than I thought for the 40 miles, and not feel too tired for the Coombe Gibbet to Overton 16 on Sunday.