Romsey 5, 2016

My first race of 2016! I ran the Romsey 5 (nothing to do with Romsey Road Runners) back in the early 2000s, but not at its current venue in Broadlands estate, which is very flat, and mostly Tarmac surfaces.  Because of this it attracts fast runners and PB hunters from miles around.  This is not generally my favourite race set up, but it's great to blast out on a quick course every now and again... and I was quite curious to see what I could do 5 miles in.  My most recent reference was the Romsey Beer Race in 2013, where I clocked up 29:45 on an undulating road course.

There were plenty of familiar faces at the start.  It was a damp, mild morning with minimal wind - perfect.  The front runners set off at a cracking pace and I had to concentrate hard to keep steady.  It was mentally quite tough on the initial laps to keep focused.  I passed Rob Finch quite early on and kept almost level pegging with Cath Bailey for most of the route.

At the 3-mile mark I had clocked up 17:20, which was very respectable, but I was right at the top of my threshold.  The final 2 miles was a loop up and back again, during which I got to see the front runners absolutely stonking it.  Into the final mile - Cath and I kept edging ahead of each other but as we came into the final straight I pulled ahead of both her and another lady runner and did my best impression of a charge for home.

And then Rob and another guy came whizzing past me.  I had nothing left, and they breezed into the finish just ahead of me.  How infuriating - but I'm really pleased for a Rob, who has improved remarkably in recent weeks and months.

Here are the results - I came home in 29:16, which I'm really pleased with - but I'm hugely chuffed to have broken the 80-point age-grade barrier for the first time, making this on paper my best ever age-graded race.  A super race and an excellent start to the year.