London to Brighton 2008 56 Mile

The inaugural London to Brighton race started at 7am in the dark in the middle of a park by the River Thames in Central London in torrential and freezing rain. 210 of us head due South pretty much straight away and made our way out through the streets of south london. I had not had time for my customary morning movements before the race & a quick convenience stop 20 minutes in unfortunately led to the loss of my map. Given that the last 80km of the race were cross country & unmarked this wasn't ideal but thankfully I had reccied this 10 mile part of the course the week before being on my doorstep so getting lost at this point wasn't a problem. Yet. The rain at this point had become incessant and everyone was soaked through. I quite quickly found two other guys who seemed to be moving pretty well (and had maps) therefore i stuck with them. As we moved out of London the whole thing became a farce and the rain was turning every hill into a waterfall. 

The cut offs became harder and harder at each of the 5 x 10 mile checkpoints and I reached 50 miles in 9 hours in 20th place with just 45 minutes to spare and knew that the last 11 miles in 3 hours was gonna be tough as there was a monster climb in that last section. By this time all but 80 of the runners had dropped or been pulled out for missing cut offs. I stuck with my map reader buddies and they kept pulling out the pace and almost dropped me a few times but like a doped up rider on the slopes of Hautacam I just kept on their heals and ended up dragging them over the final summit. The final drop down to the seafront was painful as it got dark and the rain kept coming but & with an hour to cover the last 5 km i knew it would be close. 

I crept over the line in 11 hours 39 minutes, only one other group behind me finished within the time. Easily the hardest one day race I have done with only 15% finishing inside the 12 hour limit it was utter pain but once again a week later the the legs are strong & the fire burns as strong as ever.