Ashby 20 Mile Race

This was a perfect opportunity to test out everything before London.  The race situation meant the nerves and butterflies were real, as well as not sleeping properly the night before (did I pack everything?  will the alarm go off?).  
We got to Ashby in good time, which allowed us the three loo visits we needed before the start.  I ate an energy bar an hour before the off rather than my usual banana.  It tasted foul but no ill effects and I didn't feel hungry all race, so I will use one for London.  

It had been tipping it down with rain when we left home but by the start the rain was a mere drizzle.  This compounded our wardrobe dilemmas but luckily we had support on the course to accept the jackets, sweatshirts etc which were thrown at them (thank you Rhys!).  I wore everything I plan to wear for London except for my charity vest (still no news on that).
I tried hard to keep to my plan and kept the first 3 miles at over 10min/miles.  The fourth mile was a long downhill, so I did speed up at that point and kept the pace at between 9:07 and 9:59 until mile 15.  The big variation was down to the undulating course, where the hills appeared to have grown in the second lap too!  I had a bit of a down moment at mile 14 when I felt shattered and thought I wouldn't be able to keep this pace up in London.  But then, I don't have to and it will be a lot flatter.  The support was very good, especially from our team of supporters, some of whom made the 30 mile round trip to Ashby by cycle-power.

At mile 15 the plan was to slow down.  Part of me just wanted to keep going and finish, but another part of me could hear Sarah telling me to slow down, so I did.  I did mile 16 in 10:10; 17 in 10:05 and 18 in 10:09.  At that point, we turned back towards Ashby for the final stretch and my race instinct took over.  Mile 19 took me 9:53 minutes and then we hit what in my view was the hardest hill of the race.  I still managed to speed up and did the final mile in 9:15, finishing in 3:16:03 by my watch.
The kit all seemed to work with no rubbing or sore bits.  Lets hope the charity vest arrives in time to try it on the next 22 miler.
What a fantastic goodie bag we received at the end too!  None of the usual rubbish but it had a cheese and tomato cob, crisps, chocolate and a biscuit.  Just what you need!
The whole Washlands team did really well - fab performance all round!