Salisbury 10 mile, 2018

I'd been feeling a bit apprehensive about this race.  Last year I really struggled to hold it together in the second half, and on top of this I've been churning out a fair few road miles over recent weeks and struggling to go much faster than 4:30/km.  Increasingly I'm feeling relaxed and comfortable about racing cross-country and less so about the road.  This is a HRRL event with a fast, competitive field, and with 2 weeks to go before London I felt I had something to prove.

The lovely Mrs S and I arrived in plenty of time.  The racing conditions were perfect, which is to say that it was a little damp and chilly for comfort.  There were plenty of familiar faces, including the RRR and OS tribes, and we kind of flitted between the two.

Steady, steady at the start.  I hit the first km at 3:52 and the first mile at about 6:15.  Kath Bailey was about 20 in front; she finished just ahead of me last year so she was a good pacing target.  A felt just a little bit of ennui at about mile 2, running close to threshold with all that distance ahead, but soon after this I caught up with Kath and we kept up a competitive pace for the next 5 miles or so, making the event far more interesting.

Soon after 5 miles you cross the river Avon and start heading back south towards Salisbury, which felt good.  The road was quieter and the landscape felt nicer.  I was ready for the crunchy little hill in mile 7 which I pushed through, and around this time I left Kath behind and realised I could get a reasonable time if I could keep the pressure up.  At 8 miles you get a view of Salisbury cathedral, you can see there are no more hills and you pass a field of llamas.  All good.  Sensing the finish ahead, I upped the pace as much as I could and was chugging along as we got into the outskirts of Salisbury.

A final fling around the grassy finish area and I collapsed in a heap over the line in just over 1:02, done for but happy.  Last year my chip time was 1:04:07, this year it was 1:01:56 - I'll take that.

This was a good pre-London confidence boost, and moreover a cracking local event, well organised and with excellent support and marshaling.  And there were a couple of huge and fabulously dressed-up Bactrian camels (that's the 2-humped kind) at the finish, a delightfully random but classy addition to the day.

Plenty to smile about for RRR