Corsham 10k, 2019

Thankfully, yesterday's Storm Hannah, which threatened to trash the garden and blew two panes out of the greenhouse, had blown itself out by this morning.  The lovely Mrs S and I left the house and took a lengthy, if scenic, drive over Salisbury Plain to the beautiful town of Corsham in north Wiltshire.  Neither of us had been there before, and it it's a lovely place.

With a field of over 1000, this was a larger-than-average club race.  The race HQ area was busy, and after the 10-minute walk from the car, there wasn't a lot of time left to visit the loo, stash bags and get warmed up.  I ended up having to run through a ditch to get near to the start line.  It was a very friendly atmosphere, and it was great to catch up with Craig Rumble - we'd met before at a few races, most recently at the Bath half. 

With the lovely Mrs S at the start

At the side of the road was a massive military gun, which was to be pulled around the course by a team of beefy chaps, having been fired to start the race.  The actual start was very sudden - no words, just a bang which startled everyone, and off we went.

The first 4k is almost entirely uphill, and was into the wind.  Yesterday it would have been a really hard slog.  I managed to moving slowly up the pack, and caught up with Craig just before the highest point at 4k.

The profile suggested that the remaining 6k was mainly downhill, which was true enough, but belied a couple of tough drags with 'no pain... no gain... :)' painted on the tarmac.  By this stage I was a couple of paces behind Mark Urbanowski, and we stayed in constant formation for the rest of the race.  At about 9k there was a sharp dip down and a tough little hill on the other side, at which point I heard footsteps approaching.  I thought it would be Craig, but it was a youngster (Alex Fisher) who shot past us.

The final section was a gradual downhill, with signs counting down the finish every 100m, and some droll captions ('Pain is just a French word for bread').  I kept the pressure up, but couldn't close on Mark U - I finished 4 seconds behind him.

I finished in 12th place with a split time of 37:22, which I was very happy with.   Here are my stats.  Mrs S, naturally, knocked out another PB, and we were both delighted with a tremendous morning out

With Craig at the finish

West Wight 3 Hills, 2019

We last ran this race back in 2017.  Like then, today was bright and sunny, although mercifully the intensity of the heatwave of recent days had diminished.

We caught the ferry to Yarmouth along with John Horton, and had a pleasant cycle ride along the disused railway line to Freshwater.  At race HQ we said hello to a few folk and got ourselves ready for the first hot race of the year.  It was super to have Hampshire Hare Kate and her daughter Alice join us on their first race of this kind.

With Alice, Kate and John

And of course the lovely Mrs S

I reckoned I was in the top ten as we went up the first hill, and caught and handful of guys on the downhill sweep into town.  And after that I was all on my own.  I loved the course, and felt strong on the hills.  Coming down off Headon Warren, I had a comedy episode when a marshal shouted 'right turn' and then realised that the turn was his right but my left.  There was lots of tape and signs, and I never felt in danger of getting lost.

Then the big push up on to West High Down, heaving away with my hands on my thighs, a few minutes on the down and the final scent to the Tennyson Monument before belting downhill.  As I arrived at the bottom of the field, John (Kate's husband) was there, telling me I was in third place.  Wow!

Fired up, I kept the pressure up as I headed north-east on the roads for the final section.  A bit further on, a young girl called out to me as I went past.  I didn't hear and I asked her to repeat it... I thought she said something like 'keep left', and like an idiot I just carried on, because her tone sounded like she was giving advice.

I ran on for about 600m, and it was very quiet.  I passed a 'Totland' sign, and I got the horrible feeling that I was heading in the wrong direction.  With a groan I turned around and ran back to the girl who was looking flustered and saying 'I told you it was down here, pointing to a path on the right of the road.  I'm ashamed to say I vented a few words of frustration at her... but really it was not her fault and she should have been better briefed and supported.

Now in a turmoil of frustration, I ran on to the finish a few hundred metres away.  I finished in 57:19, nearly 3 minutes down on my 2017 effort, but today was over a km further and I was 7s/km faster - I'll take that!

It's easy to get cross and frustrated when you give your all and it fails because of a technical error - but this was a good outing in beautiful surroundings.

Salisbury 10, 2019

A bright and cold morning. The lovely Mrs S and I jumped in a car with Dan Lurcock and Alex Prinsep from Romsey and headed off to Salisbury for the annual ten-mile road race. 

It was a chilly bright start to the day. At race HQ, we worried about the timing of the exact moment to strip off layers down to race kit, but as ever, it wasn't too bad once we'd done it.

I was intrigued by what was going to happen on this race.  It was my third time, having run it in 1:04:07 in 2017 and then 1:01:56 in 2018.  After a good recent spell of road race times, I wanted to know what I was capable of.  Very soon after the start I found myself next to Alex, and we stuck together for the whole race.  It didn't feel like rivalry, but there was equally no mutual pacing going on.  We caught up with James Clarke at about mile 4 and left him behind.  At the 5-mile mark we were at just over 30 minutes, and I was loving the drama and anticipation of the day, with the prospect and opportunity of a cracking result.

Alex and I, inseparable through the first 9 miles

 It was a beautiful spring day and it was great to be out in the countryside.  Over the bridge at Upper Woodford and then back south to Salisbury, with a couple of tasty little hills just where the distance begins to make itself known... I kept up the pressure and felt Alex slipping back on the final drag just before mile 8.  I wasn't sure whether to feel pleased or disappointed!  But a couple of minutes later he was back, and edged ahead as we began the final mile.

You approach the finish by coming off the main road and heading up a cycle track to the athletics field for a final lap.  By this stage I was working really hard, keeping up with Alex but unable to reel him in.  The track was far longer than I remembered, and I was well in the red zone as we turned into the track.

I just couldn't catch him

In the end there were 2 seconds in it.  I finished in a chip time of 1:01:25, knocking 90 seconds off last year and representing my fastest 10-mile race result since getting 1:00:14 in 1995.  Wow!  Here are my stats.  Alex - many thanks for driving me to it and keeping me going.

Smiles all round at the finish, with another PB for Mrs S (with an astonishing negative split) and the rest of the Romsey gang, and additionally a big milestone for the Hampshire Hares, with Neil Wilson on great form and Rob Gowman running his first-ever 10-mile race just a year after starting running.  Massive kudos to you.

The Romsey gang

With a triumphant Rob (plus mascot) and Neil

Combe Gibbet, 2019

Sunday was a double bill.  The lovely Mrs S had run the Devizes Half in the morning (and an unexpected PB to boot), and we had a cracking drive through the Wiltshire and Berkshire chalk landscape to Combe Gibbet for the start of this 16-mile point-to-point race.

Combe Gibbet has a rather thrilling history, as the site of a double murder in 1676.  In contrast to the loveliness of the valleys, up (280m up) on the downs it was misty, eerie and a bit bleak.  After a while two coaches arrived and tons of runners poured out, including some familiar faces.  It was all very low-key and friendly, and soon enough we were off.

At the start - the gibbet is in the distance

I counted the runners ahead and reckoned I was in 14th place.  Over the next 20 minutes or so I overtook a few, and was comfortably in the top ten.  From this point I was very slowly gaining on a Basingstoke runner, Andy Goddard.

5 miles in, hunting down Andy

I caught up with Andy shortly before halfway.  We had a brief chat and then a bit of a mix up as I climbed over a gate just as he was trying to open it, and I didn't see him again.

That was just about the last view of any fellow runner.  Soon after this, I was down in a big valley, through an underpass beneath the A34 and then climbing a long drag of an ascent up the other side.  For a while I could just see a runner ahead.  I was feeling good and kept the pressure up.

The final leg was all down hill.  I pushed on, and suddenly recognised where I was as I came into Overton, and there was Mrs S.  I finished in 4th place in 1:44:37 (here are the results, and my stats) which was really absurdly fast for a 16-mile cross-country race (at 4:02/km, it was the same pace as last year's Chester Metric Marathon), but apart from the halfway hill, this was a downhill chase, with a net 200m descent.

 

Fantastic fun - this is a really lovely event!

 

Wickham Spring 10k, 2019

It was a bright, cool morning as we headed out to Wickham. The clocks had gone forward, so it felt like a very early start. The lovely Mrs S and I were both running the 10k version of a 3-in-1 race - there were also 20k and 20 mile options, all starting together and running one, two or three-and-a-bit laps of the same course.  We had friends doing all three variants, and we had a good natter in race HQ.

The Rural Running races can have highly varied fields, ranging from not-very-competitive (qv 2018 Twixmas) to to full-on fight-to-the-finish jobs, exemplified by my tussle with Gerry Robson last year at the 2018 Wickham 10, starting from the same venue. 

We set off up a drag of a hill, and almost immediately four guys edged ahead.  I kept them in sight, but they were setting an aggressive pace.  Before long there was no one in sight behind me, and I was wondering whether I would be able to hold on and possibly gain some ground in the later stages.  About 3km in, they started turning left ahead of me. Getting closer, the big yellow sign said '20 miles only'. I couldn't believe that these guys were going to keep this up for 20 miles; and more to the point, I was suddenly on my own.

After that, it was a lonely flog. I was feeling quite weary after yesterday's manual labour in the garden, and I tried to temper the effort of bashing away with enjoying the beauty of the course, enhanced by the sealed roads. It was really peaceful and delightful... but nonetheless a bit weird.

I finished the 10.5km race in 39:46.  I was given a medal and a trophy, and after getting my breath back II wandered off to get some clothes from the car.  I returned to find that there was still no sign of any other finishers.  Had I taken a shortcut, I wondered?  Was this really a 10-mile course which I had inadvertently skipped? It was a relief when other started appearing over the hill.  After a handful had finished I realised that Mrs S would be due any moment.  Could she be 1st F? Two female figures appeared, Mrs S just behind... she was second lady and sixth place overall, exultant at having hit the 10k point in a personal best.

Here are my stats. I was pleased with the way I had run, but it did reinforce the point that competition is much more exciting than an easy win.