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Brutal Run Series - Race 2

Feb 27, 2011

RACE REPORT FROM ROB MCKENZIE:

Race 2 of 3 in the Brutal Series

The second race in the Brutal Run series and the first I actually made to on time (with the help of Luke driving instead of relying on public transport).

We were all pretty wet by the time the race kicked off and knew it was going to make the course even harder. Luke immediately left me behind and joined the lead pack whilst I restrained myself (despite my competitive instincts spurring me to sprint after him) and stuck to a pace I knew I could maintain.

I'd been following one guy (Steve, I later found out) for a while when we got to a photographer lying on the ground pointing the lens at our feet. It was a bit weird until Steve suddenly dropped about 2 feet into the mud with me shortly following into the back of him. We had entered a little area the organiser had fondly called 'The Swamp'. It certainly lived up to its name.

At this point the course got a lot harder once we had to power through thigh deep mud pools before getting back into steeper and steeper hills with steeper and steeper descents. My trainers were coated in a thick layer of mud by this point and I was sliding everywhere - trail running shoes for next time I think.

After being overtaken by quite a few people at the start, I slowly clawed my way back up, picking up the pace in the last km to finish just shy of an hour and 48th out of 214.

A brilliant run with plenty of thigh destroying hills and sucking, slippery mud. Thanks for the birthday present Luke! RM

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LG: For me, Brutal Run 2 was all about mud. As expected there were a number of tough climbs and sharp descents which made the course a real challenge but the 'swamp' areas and deep mud ensured that a fast time was not going to be possible. I managed to lose my footing a couple of times ending up face down in pools of mud (picutres to follow).

Conditions aside, this was the first race where I felt that I got my pacing right which enabled me to push hard in the second half of the race and record my best result to date (17th out of 214). This is a huge improvement from Brutal 1 where I finished 56th and ~6minutes slower over the same distance. My training plan and yoga seem to be working...although still a long way to go.

Looking forward to the next round of races.

Race Series 2011

Race Stats

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