On the day the Wistanstow Challenge course was a little different to the one that I had guessed, but near enough to mean that the planned pace was pretty much followed (but with a faster start) and a completion time of 6 hours and 21 minutes giving a result of joint 25th place.

The main difference between this event and the Malvern Midsummer Marathon is that there are a lot more hills spread along the route, rather than the big congregation at the end. The height profile demonstrates this:

Notwithstanding the slight differences between the guessed route and the actual one, the mile split times showed the same pattern,

The first few miles were faster (despite being a lot of uphill) and the benefit of this was reaped towards the end as the actual distance covered was 26.9 miles, whereas only 26 was planned for. Without the initial pace at the start we might not have hit the target time of 6 hours 30 minutes and the gold certificate!

Give or take GPS inaccuracies I have plotted out the cumulative mile times for the four long distance walk/runs that I have done – two Malvern practices, one Malvern Midsummer Marathon and the Wistanstow challenge. As I would say that the Wistanstow Challenge is as difficult as the Malvern Marathon, though different because of the location of the hills, there is some considerable scope for improving on the June 2013 time. I think that I shall enter again….