Racing again!

On Wenesday evening I was part of an Ordnance Survey Runners team in a 'Glow in the Park' event in Southampton Common.  This consisted of both a 5k and a 10k race; I signed up for the 5k a few weeks a few weeks ago as I didn't know what state of repair I'd be in.  Buoyed by my recent parkrun adventures, I was looking forward to this.

There were 5 of us crammed in a car from the office, all togged up on a cold winter's night.  We arrived at the common to find rather chaotic organisation but glowing stuff everywhere.  Team OS proudly posed for a pre-race photo.

The 5k race started first.  At the startling, I looked around and reflected that there wasn't an awful lot of competition and that should probably be in reach of the top order.  Then the organiser said there were prizes for the leading male and female runners and I thought 'I'm having that'.  Honestly, what a tart.

Off we went.  I've never done a night time race before.  I found it a bit discombobulating, my head torch bobbing up and down and shining a rather vibrato pool of light on the asphalt path.  Quite quickly I was in the top 4, then 3... I was a bit nervous that I'd over-egged, but crikey it felt good to be going at full throttle again and unashamedly racing.

I won it!  I finished in a pool of sweaty exhaustion, with lots of patting from colleagues.  Eastleigh parkrun in 18:52? This must have been sub-18:30, easily.  Err, no - the clock clearly said 19:15, a frankly terrible time for a charge about on a nearly-flat hard path.  Somewhere between the 2 180-degree turns, the darkness and the cold conditions the seconds had slipped away.  Curious!

It got better and better.  All 4 of our 5kers were in the top 11 and we finished in pole position in the 10k too.

What a great evening.  Everyone went home buzzing.