RR10: Netley Abbey

On Wednesday I ran in the first RR10 race of the season at Netley Abbey.  Netley is one of my favourite venues, with a great mix of landscape and terrain... but it's also one of my least favourite places to reach, with inevitable early-evening traffic and very limited alternative route options.  I thought I was going to arrive late, after sitting on the M27 for 10 minutes, but the start was delayed so I was fine.

I set off quite briskly and was glad for a section of single-file traffic, which allowed me to steady the pace and get my rhythm.  I was overtaking people regularly and I felt good.  The 2 laps included a section of beach - nothing on the scale of the Grizzly, but enough to be interesting.

I finished in 24th place, which was a good result.  The race field seemed larger than usual, and it later turned out that there were 398 runners - a record.  That's fantastic, but why so?  A friend at work reckoned it's the parkrun effect; in any case, it's terrific to be part of something that's growing so healthily.

A busy start

On the beach