I have run the Thames Trot or derivatives of this 50 mile River Thames route a number of times over the year, with 2011 being the first time I've not run the whole thing. Last year I paced / muled my Swiss friend over the back end of the route. I was on the recovery from racing 50km a few weeks earlier (excuses, excuses). Needless to say Swiss suffered a great deal more than me!
My Swiss friend Alain is back again this year, but the difference is we will both be running the full distance. No being a pussy for me this year. I will be using this a supremely long training run for my preparations for the Barry 40 Mile Track Race in March.
The Thames Trot is a fantastic race, and the Go Beyond Ultra team do a really good job of organising this event. This is a point to point race, starting just outside of Oxford and running, walking, crawling all the way to Henley-on-Thames. My Garmin output from the 2010 race is below. The route this year will be slightly different with a couple of diversions due to repair work on the Thames Path. However, the route below gives you a good idea of what's going, start it Oxford and run down the river...stop when you reach Henley! Easy
2010 was a great race for me. If you click through the link above you will see my split times, I didn't necessarily race it the most sensibly...but the time on the day was fast enough to gain me my first (and only) victory over an ultra distance race. Many more to come this year I hope.
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| Thames Trot Winner 2010 - Happy Days! |
My plan for the race is to run to achieve a time of around 6h30m as in 2010, however I am hoping to pace this more evenly. This plan is subject to discussion with Alain. I have not had time to discuss with him as we are both on busy work and training schedules. This means formal plans will be put in place the day before the race when Alain arrives from Switzerland. Alain's hopes and aspirations for the race will be overiding (unless of course he wants sub 6h30...I might have something to say about that) and I will be happy to go at any pace.
The course is very dependent on the weather. Not necessarily the weather on the day, but more the weather in the preceeding weeks. If there is a lot of rain in the two weeks before the race parts of the course can get very bogged down and very very muddy...this will effect our ability to make good progress so the finish time will very much depend on this. Last year for example the going was pretty good, at least the 25 miles I saw of it were...they were a bit better than in 2010 which is why some of the times produced were so fast (it had nothing to do with the standard of runner that turned up!!). I won't be planning on any aggressive tactics for this race as I need to conserve my energy for the Barry 40. Seems a strange thing to say, 'conserving energy' and 'running 50 miles'
With thoughts of energy conservation on my mind I better sign off.
