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Second in England & Wales Ultra Trail Champs. beyondthelimitations.co.uk

I knew that top two were virtually guaranteed selection for Wales for the Commonwealth Champs in North Wales, but with the third-best Welsh entrant about a 2:55 marathoner, I had no intention of just "doing enough". I saw the entry lists the night before and thought winning wouldn't be impossible.

Did TV interview beforehand. Not sure how on earth this was of interest to them. Was supposed to go out on on ITV West on something at 6pm - not sure if it did, but they have highlights here itv.com - sorry not wearing Werrington vest but didn't want to be recognised as the one who one gets the London Marathon pace right and be used as a pacemaker).

Anyway, I was surprised how steadily we all started. Whereas most marathoners go off too quickly, it seems ultra-runners are more sensible. Eventual winner was gone from the start. Chasing-group pace was slower than I intended beforehand, but, not being experienced at this, did not want to risk going with the leader.

So four of us stayed together all the way to 19 miles. I'm not used to conversation mid-race but even I was at it. The chatter stopped at about 13 miles, though, so I knew they were feeling it.

One of them was dropping back slightly. I told the other two I wasn't English so they didn't have to race for me selection, hoping that would make them less likely to try to follow me, and broke away in the 20th mile.

Got quite a gap in the next five I think, but slowed massively from 28M and was worried they might catch me if they'd paced it well.

Got halfway around the 600m-long finishing field and saw third place coming into the field. Was treading water by this point, but knew I was safe.

As soon I crossed the line, I had first aid wanting to treat a bleeding ankle blister I didn't know I had and TV crew wanting to do something when all I wanted to do was keep walking slowly to stop muscles cramping. First aid won the battle. I then ran through the finish line again for the camera as they missed me first time (well there was one finisher every three minutes or so, so we were easy to miss!).

Incidentally, having as usual written out on my hand my nutrition strategy, it all went to pot when they put the carb drinks on the wrong table on each loop.

Ithink this will take a lot more recovery than the marathon. Had been more worried about the achilles than before the marathon.

Despite being born in South Wales, never been to North Wales. About to book a week off work to go in September.

This has made me appreciate that 50km isn't just a marathon with a bit tagged on the end. You seem to have to run them totally differently and not sure what the secret is. I have a had a very bold goal to be the first Brit since 1996 to go sub-three-hours for 50km, but this today made me reailise more why no one has done it in all that time: 1) the race time calculators are probably way out and 2) none of the top guys do ultra.

Results at beyondthelimitations.co.uk

Very poor depth, but I beat the top two at 50km from last year in the UK, the winner has run 3:07 for 50km and there weren't huge numbers missing at the top end.

Rough splits for each of the large laps after the initial small lap:

1 up to 8.94M 34:45
2 to 14.5M 34:30
3 to 20.1M 34:17
4 33:29
5 35:30

Split Summary

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1) - 1m - 6:18(6:18/m) - 85cal

2) - 1m - 6:12(6:12/m) - 87cal

3) - 1m - 6:14(6:14/m) - 86cal

4) - 1m - 6:17(6:17/m) - 86cal

5) - 1m - 6:20(6:20/m) - 88cal

6) - 1m - 6:15(6:15/m) - 87cal

7) - 1m - 6:31(6:31/m) - 87cal

8) - 1m - 6:02(6:02/m) - 86cal

9) - 1m - 6:08(6:08/m) - 85cal

10) - 1m - 6:13(6:13/m) - 87cal

11) - 1m - 5:50(5:50/m) - 87cal

12) - 1m - 6:27(6:27/m) - 88cal

13) - 1m - 6:12(6:12/m) - 86cal

14) - 1m - 6:08(6:08/m) - 87cal

15) - 1m - 6:18(6:18/m) - 86cal

16) - 1m - 6:04(6:04/m) - 87cal

17) - 1m - 5:59(5:59/m) - 87cal

18) - 1m - 6:28(6:28/m) - 87cal

19) - 1m - 6:02(6:02/m) - 87cal

20) - 1m - 6:02(6:02/m) - 88cal

21) - 1m - 5:47(5:47/m) - 86cal

22) - 1m - 5:46(5:46/m) - 88cal

23) - 1m - 6:06(6:06/m) - 87cal

24) - 1m - 6:11(6:11/m) - 86cal

25) - 1m - 6:07(6:07/m) - 88cal

26) - 1m - 6:06(6:06/m) - 87cal

27) - 1m - 6:08(6:08/m) - 87cal

28) - 1m - 5:51(5:51/m) - 87cal

29) - 1m - 6:44(6:44/m) - 87cal

30) - 1m - 6:29(6:29/m) - 89cal

31) - 1m - 6:38(6:38/m) - 86cal

32) - 1m - 6:52(6:51/m) - 88cal

Pace Zone Summary

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Pace Zone: 4:20-4:39/mile: 1.4%

Pace Zone: 4:40-4:59/mile: 3.4%

Pace Zone: 5:00-5:19/mile: 7.5%

Pace Zone: 5:20-5:39/mile: 12.7%

Pace Zone: 5:40-5:59/mile: 14.3%

Pace Zone: 6:00-6:19/mile: 15.9%

Pace Zone: 6:20-6:39/mile: 13.7%

Pace Zone: 6:40-6:59/mile: 11.3%

Pace Zone: 7:00-7:19/mile: 7.6%

Pace Zone: 7:20-7:39/mile: 4%

Pace Zone: 7:40-7:59/mile: 2.5%

Pace Zone: 8:00-8:19/mile: 1.9%