Fight to the finish: Wickham 10k 2018

It was a damp, dull sort of morning.  The lovely Mrs S and I pitched up at Wickham community centre where we met Tony, Di and Dave from OS plus a few familiar faces from Itchen Spitfires, including one of my deadliest rival, Gerry Robson.

Mrs S and the rivals before the start

Now, Gerry and I go back a year or so to the time that I hit 50 and joined his age category.  He subsequently spent much of the winter season injured and then I've been below par on the speed front since early May, so we haven't had that many proper encounters recently.  He's been trouncing me on recent RR10s and parkruns, but Mrs S told me that he doesn't like hills, and with a few natty climbs on this course I thought this might be an interesting battle.

Gerry and I like coiled springs, itching for the off

I resolved to let Gerry do the work from the start and set the pace.  After a couple of km I found myself close behind him and edged ahead.  He stayed with me, and by 3k it was just the two of us in combat - the rest of the field was nowhere to be seen.

Part of me was slightly aghast at the work I clearly had in front of me, part was exhilarated, and part was curious as to how this thing would pan out.  Gerry was constantly there, blowing hard close to me, sometimes slightly ahead, sometimes behind.  I was working right at my threshold...  and so it went on and on.  At 8k Gerry was pulling ahead... at 9k I was in the lead. This was enthralling stuff.

The final 500m or so was all downhill.  Gerry edged ahead and opened up a lead.  Busting everything I had, I couldn't hold him, and he hit the line 5 seconds before me.  Game over.

I think this was the most full-on deadly duel I've ever had in a race.  Just checkout the Strava flyby.  Here are my stats and here are the results.

Gerry - a huge thank you for a fantastic adventure, and great job on knocking out that storming finish.

With the OS gang at the finish