Running (Jura Fell Race) 3:40:30 [4] 27.8 km (7:56 / km) +2446m 5:31 / km
A 6 minute PB, a little less than I'd hoped for but given the conditions acceptable for now.
I probably started a little too laid back, top 50 heading up the hill from the start, gradually picking up a place or two here and there, including the already disgruntled, though soon to be considerably moreso, Stu. Given my experience with my previous 4 trips to Jura I was largely focussed on not fucking it up and falling apart towards the end. Never felt like I was totally busting a gut, just trying to make sure I didn't run horror lines, stayed warm(ish) and kept getting food down. A small walk around from CP2 because I was too trusting of the confident people in front of me cost a minute or two but apart from that, and the usual mixed bag descending from CP7 everything was fine. Ran about half the race with my waterproof over my baselayer and bag and was by no means hot. No idea how all the people still out in just vests/baselayers were not hypothermic. Food was fine; tailwind, gels, one snickers and a wee thing of salted nuts incase I got sick of the sweet stuff. Just made sure I was grazing the whole time, eating on every climb.
Legs were significantly less busted than in previous years, though the annual crampy adductor twinge as I crossed the burn on the run down to the road didn't disappoint. (Death, taxes...) It never came to anything. Managed to get over the stile and get my road shoes on without going to crap. Much debate on the road shoes question over the weekend. It might not make you faster but it definitely makes the road less shit. I didn't mind it this year. Took a couple of hundred metres to make sure the increase in turnover wasn't going to send me into a dtich in a twitching mess then settled into an acceptably uncomfortable rhythm for the rest of the way. Passed by one, pulled away from a couple of others, pulled back but failed to catch another guy. All of which says more about our relative abilities at running on the flat than about our shoe choice I imagine.
Only looked at my watch at 3:38. Maaaybe if I'd been keeping a closer eye on it I could have found the thirty secods from somewhere but probably not. More realistically, I could probably have found thos 30 seconds by getting dragged along but quicker runners at the start and by going slightly harder over the Paps. Plenty excuses to go back next year. The correct number of Juras is n+1.