I started to increase the pace with a final kick well under 3mins/km. With a loud shout I was done.
I briefly considered going back, but the thought of retracing my steps was unappealing.
Just as I was about to exit the park, I felt a deep, strong pulse in both of my hamstrings.
We sat down and took out our delicious snacks. Sam was looking a little rough, and after his first bite, he keeled over and emptied his stomach on the ground. Oh no.
I found myself in 6th place. The leader started moving ahead swiftly, and I worried that the gap would widen if the single track continued for too long.
As I rounded the last corner and saw the finish line, I glanced at my watch and, with one last effort, crossed the finish line.
We ran through a tunnel, across a bridge, and almost immediately into a pack of donkeys
All I could manage was an extreme death march, even slower than my finish at the Bear 100
I was dead last at this point and saw the sweepers set off behind me as I left the aid station.
On entering the aid station, I followed the sage advice of any person who had DNF'd - don't quit as you enter the Aid Station. Walking over to the food tent, I grabbed a hamburger and a coke and slowly ate in-front of the camp fire.
The route up to High Seat was unclear, as most of the fell was covered in snow, the last section would also be a steep (50%+ gradient) slog.
Other than those minor annoyances, the first loop went well. As I approached the end of loop 1, I began to feel very cold, mainly due to the constant rain, sheltered course and lack of sun.
As we made our way through we got to experience all the joys of trail running. Rain pouring on us, sliding in ludicrous amounts of mud, hails battering us from all sides, lightning crashing around us. What good value for money.
I started running hard to catch up, and after a few moments the realization dawned - no, I would not be able to catch them. I was pretty baked from 30ish kms of heat and hills.
As I took the hair-pin turn around I said goodbye to my drafting team and upped the pace to just below Marathon pace.
I’d always intended to take a 10 minute or so break at the half way stage, but ended up taking 25 mins changing shoes, clothes, eating and warming up.
Living only 15mins away I was able to have a decent sleep, meet up with the running club crew and catch the tube over to London Bridge just in time for the bag drop, though the snow had gone away, it was still bloody cold!
If it hadn't been for my fair-chunk of slippery trail running, and this being the 4th time I ran this section, I would have had to walk it all.
Once we crested the top of the hill there was a nice soft downhill, we upped the pace to 4:10 min/km to bank time for the return leg of this out-and-back section.
As the day wore on the thermometer drifted upwards, it wasn't a stonking hot day, but it certainly wasn't cool.