Trail-X, Gran Canaria

Yesterday I competed in my first race since my accident in December. After having 4 months away from racing it was a good opportunity to go through the processes of racing before the Spanish Cup on the 1st of May. The Trail-X is a new race to Gran Canaria and was run in the Valley of Fataga in the south of the island. The half marathon was an out and back race along a dirt track into the mountains.

I wanted to test my leg speed in this race so I went out hard from the gun setting a pace which was too fast for the other runners to respond to. Going through 5km in under 20minutes I felt very good however the heat was starting to get to me, temperatures reached 35degrees during the race and I had to make use of all the water stations during the race.

At the half way point I took a split on my watch to allow me to try to work out what sort of lead I had. I past the 2nd placed runner after 2min30 so I could work out that I had roughly a 5min lead. On the way back down it was nice to hear the encouragement from all the other runners. At times during the race I felt like easy up because of the extreme temperatures however I didn't allow myself to ease off the gas. I crossed the finish line in 1h25mins over 8 minutes ahead of Carlos Rodriguez in second place.

Overall I was pleased with my performance, however I feel that I could do with a little more speed; something to work on over the next few weeks.