Blackfield, 1 June
This is an interesting course; the land is essentially flat, but in the secoond half there are a few (four? five? six? It's a bit of a blur now) steep gullies down to a stream which are a killer.
I paced this one OK, enjoying the crunchy gravel in the open sections and the technical swerviness in the narrower places. I had a better sense than last year of how far there was left in the final minutes and I crossed the line in 14th place, a cracking result.
Fleming Park, 8 June
This is a very familiar parkrun course but my first RR10 here. It's an old golf course on the side of a hill; 2 lumpy laps plus a long straight length of start and finish.
I set off a bit too fast on the first lap and had to work really hard to keep it together in the second. What made it infinitely worse was a growing desperation to go the loo as the race progressed. In the final km I had a great chase with the first lady, Valeria Sesto from New Forest. I finished in a heap. Altogether, it wasn't the most fun half-hour I've ever spent... hence my amazement at finishing in 13th position, equal to my best ever in an RR10. It's a funny old world!
Marwell, 6 July
It's muddy, they said, so wear sensible shoes. We've had 115mm of rain over June and the starting section of track was indeed a proper quagmire. I started quite far back so was overtaking folk on soft narrow sections, which was quite a challenge. The course was tremendous - big figure-of-eight swirls over a gentle hillside, some in wide open ground and some in narrrow earthy lanes.
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| The fast bit before the mud |
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| I'm in the red shirt on the right... like a plonker I had forgotten my club kit. |
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| Through the savannah |
I always reckon on catching Alan Graham from Lordshill at some point in an RR10 and this time I took him with about a third of the race left. Back up through the mudfest and then there is a heart-braking tour of part of the Marwell carpark. I was plodding to the finish when some sprinting behind me woke me up and propelled me over the line, done for.
21st place... down on the 14, 14, 13 so far tghis season but in historic terms still respectable. A most enjoyable race.
