RR10 2017: Royal Victoria Country Park

It was glorious to be back to the summer season of evening racing.  It's a fair old schlep out to Netley once you account for the rush-hour traffic... several times in the past I have sat in queues on this route  in a sweat as the minutes ticked by, and subsequently charging to the start line from the faraway overflow where I've had to park.  This time it was all very serene; Mrs S was with me, we left at a sensible hour and we were all parked up and ready to go fully ten minutes before the gun.

There was lots of scaffolding going on around the start area, and erroneous was a bit vague about the course, which had been altered.  We set off in open ground and quickly disappeared into woods, where it became terrific fun.  Roots, branches, sudden twists... excitement and danger everywhere and I loved it.  Tarmac, grass, path; we flashed through every combination and I, not generally being a fan of laps, really looked forward to going around a second time.  I was overtaking and felt OK but was right at the top of my threshold and trying to keep my breathing under control.

And then the final section towards the finish.  I overtook Mike White from Stubbington, but as the end approached, I heard various 'he's behind you!' noises from spectators which took me up into a gear I didn't know that I had left.  Witness the awful gurning picture below. I kept ahead and had to lie down heaving on the grass afterwards, clutching a raffle ticket with 24 on it, which was kind of OK respectable.

The painful final furlong

What a race-tastic week this is.  Next stop is the Southampton half marathon on Sunday.