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