7,500 feet
I'm still annoyed about my cathedral complete mess I made of this race. my misplaced trust in following two local(well to the Island anyway) runners on one descent cost me a probable PB. I will never know.
Unfortunately it was a day for low cloud. The weather was benine in every other way just dank. As I have only competed twice before, and with no real opportunity to recce, low cloud was my biggest worry. I started the race at a good pace and on the first big climb up North Barrule I counted I was in about 10th place. The climb and run along the ridge went well, and just on the descent to the road crossing at the bottom of Snaefell, I passed the guy who eventually came 3rd.
I caught and passed a few others then I took a long looping line in the fog off Beinn Y Phott. All went well and I felt like I was going to have a great race. I felt really positive about my effort. Then whilst following to manx fell runners vests off Colden it all came crashing down. In the mist I followed the 2 in front as he cut a corner off and tracked too far right. We carried on then scratched our heads but not before we had done a mile loop to end up back on Colden. I conservatively estimated this to have cost 15 minutes, but how much it cost in lost energy, hence lost time due to fatigue, and how much morale was lost was pretty impossible to say. But it surely cost me significantly more than the 15 minutes whilst doing a frustratingly pointless loop.
Back on track and I tried to motivate myself. Overtaking a few that I had already passed was both a boost and a reminder of my big mistake. So I battled on feeling pretty tired to on people of the best race finishes of any. The Cliffs that lead into Port Erin are really beautiful. A class runner called Charlie sharp had been closing in on me and I just about manged to maintain my position to finish 8th in 6:23.40, 38 seconds ahead of Charlie. Rob Sellors won in 5:34.23.
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