Race Report - Prestige Trail Run 21km

The Morning Started at 4am, as we needed to travel about 45min to the 6:30 registration venue. Registration went smoothly nothing complicated and the people filled in fairly slowly.

Everyone was nervous as the weather report said rain all week and no one knew what to expect. I was so not awake yet and because I haven't done this in ages it was almost like I didn't know what do do when.

Like you can se on these photographs...I was not AWAKE YET LOL

7:30 Race start went smooth, SO smooth in fact that I didn't get a picture of the start haha.

Nutrition Strategy was to aim for about 200cals per hour. I am not always very good at ingesting calories on a run but I wanted to get it right or as close as possible to right.

The group started at a stiff pace like normal but my diesel engine needed some time to warm up so I took it easy out the blocks and before long I was part of the back markers on the course.

My plan for this race really was to survive, and be as consistent as possible when it came to pacing and racing in such a way that I can sustain it throughout and not burn on the first hill.

I took a walk run strategy from the first km, run the hill till you can't any more and then speed hike the rest, Run the runnable sections and the downhills...play it by leg.

For those that don't know me so well. I love being more to the back of the race, less traffic, less pressure and I can actually soak in the nature around me, also I can run my own race without a lot of interference.

I had a couple of layers on as it was overcast when we started, but took off the long sleeve layer before 1 km came and we hit the first big hill of the day.

By km 2 I was well on my way up the mountain and knew what the race markers looked like and just loved the gravel under my feet. I was also waking up and feeling a more alive.

Not much happened between km 4 and 5, I was getting into my pacing and the highlight of this section was a direction board that most of the front pack missed and ran the wrong way. You will see on the photo there is a running coming towards me that realised his error and turned around to rectify his error.

Everywhere you could see signs of spring coming in fast and the flower season starting. Being overcast and early these flowers was all still asleep. There was a few drops of rain just after 5km but nothing that could dampen the spirit.

Km 6 - 8 we literally did a up and up and up and then a little bit down and again. Also a bit of zig zag through the vineyards.

The vineyards has been pruned for the new season, so there was a lot of loose debris and sticks lying in the alleys between the vineyards that made some of the turns between the vines a bit tricky. Those loose cut off vine stalks can trip you like a piece of wire.

Coming round the corner just after 8km you could smell these mallow bushes from a far and they were so pretty. I took a minute here and just "smelled the mallows".

We did a lovely piece of single track, just after here that I enjoyed so much that when I got out of the section realised that I just ran and didn't take a single photo. It was flowy and soft under foot and by now I was really on top of this run enjoying every step.

Running single track has a bit of magic for me. You just flow with the camber and your legs roll effortlessly.

My pacing was very consistent and I started to do my finishing time calculation. Happy with what is possible.

We were also far enough up the hill so we could see where we are heading and where we came from .

Picture on the left, was where I was going on the right where I came from....And I was only 8km in.

Km 9 and 10 was up up and more up! Some Flowers along the paths started to show their faces, but as you can see it stayed overcast for most of the morning. Temperature wise it was really the perfect running weather. My hydration and nutrition was also working I felt good, I didn't have any fatigue and up until now I stuck to my planned nutrition.

A water point at 11km, I filled up on water, grabbled an extra bite to eat and by 12km we were well on our way up the hiking trail to the top of our highest point of the race. This hiking trail has switch back after switch back and its compacted pretty close to each other.

At this stage we also merged routes with the 15km and 10km races and we were a line of people going up the hill.

More pretty scenery and up the hill on km 13 and 14. Bridges, trails and another route split. This is where we now started some serious climbing and my speed came down a bit. The trail also got a bit more technical and I needed a bit of my hands.

Slow going through the rock garden, as it was very mossy and slippery and this is where I started to doubt my leg. Because I haven't done technical trail with it since the injury, Thanks to our Cape Town Winter, I had no idea what it will do.

On top of this hill was magnificent. The sun came out and we had views for days. A quick chat with the marshal and a refuel and we started our decent.

I have NEVER been fond of going down technical trail hills but I also know its something I need to work on.

So slow was going to be the pace but I was NOT prepared for what happened here.

My head went into panic mode and didn't trust the leg, in the sense of what the leg will handle and what not. I couldn't see the trail lines to go down, I over thought every step I needed to take and did not trust my instincts nor my leg at all.

Lets just say this KM took me 28mins and screwed up the whole pacing strategy for the run.

It took some work from my side to get my head back into the game and my head to trust my eye for running and going down. But I got it back and was not on my way to the finish.

At the end of km 15 I as really glad to see the end of that rocky outcrop and down hill.

At 16km I had to let a few people know at the finish line where I was. I was hungry and ate something and now I had to concentrate on getting the average run pace down as much a possible.

Basically going into damage control mode. Strategy: 3-1 run walk. I knew the terrain was going in, as I have run this part of the route a few times before.

Ticking off the km's like a boss now and more sweet smelling mellow bushes along the way. Happy with the way I am feeling nutrition and fuel wise.

AND THEN....my phone died hahaha.

Running up to the finish was amazing. I felt good, I had fuel left in the tank which was what I planned on. Time wise, everything did not go to plan and ran about 25minutes longer than I wanted to.

All in All an amazing day out to the trails, with views for days.

We did a total of 700m of vertical climbing.

A few lessons learned about keeping my head in the game but overall happy with what happened out there.

Nutrition wise In the End I consumed about 190cals per hour which was very close to my target intake and energy wise it paid off.