2016, going on 17

A quick round up of 2016 against targets...

• Top 5 M40 in the Berkhamsted half marathon - this didn't happen in 2016 and the challenge remains for 5 March.
• Top 40 overall in the Grizzly - very chuffed with 27th place, my best ever

• Sub 1:25 in the Southampton half marathon in April - nailed it in 1:22:08

• Top 3 in RR10 M40 overall league - a lowly 5th place. Never mind.

• Top 3 or 1st M40 in the Clarendon marathon - sorted on both of these

What a terrific year. 

2017... Let's aim to keep last year's standard but with a small addition - get 3 M50 top slots before the year is out.  The challenge starts in August.

Hants cross-country championships 2017

A dull, overcast January afternoon; a perfect day for a blast around Fairthorne Manor at the XC Champs.  I hadn't done proper cross-country stuff for ages... not since I joined Romsey RR in 2013.  These events are utterly competitive.  Everyone is a club runner, and the standard is really high.  I got into position at the start line suitably back from the high-octane front of the pack, most of whom were teenage whippets, straining at the leash.

Off we went.  The terrain is not particularly fierce here, but we'd had rain the day before and it was very soft going, with a lot of churn on the grass which absorbed an awful lot of your energy.  Two minutes in, and I took a ridiculous tumble on a trivial tuft.  My first reaction was fear that I was going to be trampled by the hordes.  Amazing how such a minor incident can unsettle... it took me a few minutes to get back into rhythm.

The course was all twisty turns, like a doodle or Gestalt image, up and down the mud and grass, and through some technical woods with treacherous roots, stumps and overhangs.  All good fun.  I felt OK and overtook several on the way.  Then back to the finish and I put on what I thought was a respectable sprint... only to be thoroughly trounced by Nialls Davies from Portsmouth in the dying seconds.  He rushed past and there was no time (or capability) to respond.

He's behind you! I'm just about to be pipped to the post

Too late... I'm doomed

I finished in 64th position, and 3rd M45.  Sounds OK, until you look more closely and see that I was trounced by a handful of >50s and was 6 seconds behind Graham Ratcliffe, 1st M60.  That's utterly brilliant running, Graham.

A super afternoon out, and an event for the annual calendar.

Twixmas 10k

I'd never heard of this race before, and nor had I heard of Twixmas, the old term for the week between Christmas and New Year.  This was the second race that the lovely Mrs S and I had entered together, and we drove down to Porchester on a bright and cold morning.

There was a lot of pfaffing around at the start.  The logistics of handing out race numbers weren't terribly smooth, and as a result the start was delayed by about 20 minutes... not terribly welcome news as we had just about warmed up after a lot of jumping about on the frosty playing field.  I was also a bit grumpy about the lack of a course map.

We set off at quite a pace, with some tight turns around the fields.  It was a sparklingly clear morning, and soon we were on to the coastal path, everything glinting and dazzling around us.  The course turned out to be dead simple; a straight there-and-back chase along the coast.  I'm not a fan of one-directional running, but in this case it offered the benefits of:

1. getting to find out who was ahead and behind;
2. having an opportunity to wave to Mrs S;
3. having a good sense of what the second half was going to offer; and
4. enjoying all the scenery from two directions

My pacing felt OK and I came home in seventh place in 38:13.  Here are the stats.  Not a magnificent time on a fast flat course, but I wonder whether the low temperature had an impact.  Mrs S finished her first-ever 10k in a very respectable time having loved every moment of it.  A quirky race with a sense of humour (Twix bars for all finishers) and I suspect we may be back.