Humber Bridge Half Marathon - How hot!

I entered the Humber Bridge Half Marathon about 6 weeks ago as I thought I could use it as a good training brick by cycling to the race and after the race cycling back. This seemed like a good plan, I checked the map to plan my route avoiding the A15 and trying to use smaller quiete roads. Using map my ride I measured it to be about 39 - 40 miles each way. The plan was in place. On Friday and Saturday the weather forecasters were busy telling us that Sunday was setting up to be the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures maybe reaching 30 degrees. I got up on Sunday and it was warm already, I filled a 2 litre bottle of water with High 5 for the return journey and 2 750ml sports bottles for the ride up. I took a lot of gels with me but didn't use as many as I thought. I arrived at the start area and found somewhere safe for the bike and my bag with about 15 minutes to go before the start and just changed my shoes as I'd worn tri shorts and a sleeveless cycle top to ride up, a quick wee and I made my way to the start. As the klaxon sounded I set off at the front of the 1800 strong field in a small group but at 2 miles in just 11 minutes I decided I wasn't going to play at that pace because of the ride home. I normally would have been happy at that pace but made a sensible decision to remove myself from the group and do my own thing. At the 4 mile mark we had the first of the climbs on the course, and I didn't feel great to be honest but was still on sub six min mile pace so cruised the next mile, the heat was really kicking in by now. I was moving at a good pace but at 8 miles I started to feel better than ever and lifted the pace a little before getting to mile 9, this was the main climb on the course which is about a 10% gradient and goes on for nearly a full mile. I felt strong on the climb and overtook another athlete who was struggling and once up I passed another, I was pushing on but the bridge its self is a bit of a climb with 11 miles in the legs. I felt good all the way to the finish and crossed the line in 1:21:10 which was good enough for 11th place overall. This is a tough course, check out the reviews on runners world, most people say they have clocked their personal worst on this course! At the finish I had a bottle of water, changed my shoes and top, packed the bag then cycled the 40 mile home, lucky for me it was a head wind all the way back just to keep it interesting. All in good days training, I had a 750ml serving of protein shake then went for a shower, I weighed myself before showering and was 2kg lighter than I was in the morning, so realised I would have to get a lot of fluids in during the rest of the day.