Ridgeway 40 was, well, 40 miles...unless you are Jason Harrison who decided (for the second year running!) to park at the finish and run to the start of the event making his total for the weekend, and without sleep, a grand total of 80 miles.
I was on a voyage of discovery, to see what it would be like to go on past the marathon distance so I wasn't much worried about speed or times so I kept company with the increasingly knackered Jas. Actually running on past 26 miles, then 30, 36, and eventually 40 miles was no problem at all and I know I could have done another 10 miles. (but only at gunpoint)
It was a good event with drinks and cakes etc at regular checkpoints. The checkpoints were mostly an exercise in accounting for the walkers and runners and caused some delay as runners are forced to queue with everyone else (it is principally a walk, not a run) but later in the event the runners become the leaders on the road and the delays at the checkpoints were mostly self imposed as we became less and less hurried, preferring to linger over a piece of swiss roll and a mug of tea.
I was very pleased to be able to run at a (for me) great rate for the last two miles, finishing in a lather of sweat at about the same speed as I might have finished a 10km race.
Good day out - no idea of actual time but it was just under ten hours. An hour could be knocked off that easily without the extended chats at the check points. Glad I did it but it wasn't really a race. Not really an issue when you consider yourself lucky to get in the top half of the field!
