Despite only being two weeks after my marathon I was feeling pretty good so decided to give it a go. I had ordered some spikes for the occasion and had successfully pushed them to the limit and beyond at a muddy park the day before so was keen to get stuck in to a race.
The men's race consisted of 3 laps of a 2 mile loop. The first six finishers from each club count towards the score so my goal was to be one of the scorers.
At the start almost everyone sprinted off down the hill except me who just jogged down sedately! There I am in the picture near the bottom left in a green vest behind an older guy in a green sweatshirt.
Once the pace had settled down I overtook three or four club mates and then very gradually worked my way through the field doing about 7:20 minute miles. I was expecting to do 7 minute miles but the mud does slow you down a bit and maybe that marathon was still in my legs.
Near the start of the second lap I was told that I was in about 190th place. Would I be able to work my way into the top half of the field at least? I overtook about another 10 people on that lap and then another 20 on the final lap.
Near the end of the course there is a steep short hill and then it levels out for the last 100 metres or so. The cheering crowd gave me a surge of energy and I shot past about 10 people to finish in position 155 out of 343. This was the top half of the men's race but in the bottom half of my age category. Hmmm no likey. However I came sixth in my club so achieved my primary goal.
All in all a fun afternoon and a great turnout from the Bramhall Runners with 15 in the men's race alone!
No comments:
Post a Comment