100km del Passatore virtual relay

This was my first outing that felt like a real running event since lockdown started. I was in a 4-person relay team for the 100km del Passatore virtual relay event, along with Ian, Susie and Alice. We had proper race numbers and everything. 'I corridore salati di Romsey' (the salty runners of Romsey) is a reference to Tuscny's famously saltless bread.

How's this for a cool race number?

I was running with Ian, who turned up ready for a 7am start. We set off up the hill, waved off by the lovely Mrs S, chat abruptly stopping - this is a slope that empties you of breath particularly quickly when you're starting cold.  A few minutes later I went to take a drink from the water bladder, only to realise that it was a brand new one, with the mouthpiece encased in fiddly plastic wrapping.  It being a virtual race, we paused our watches while I fiddled with the thing, cursing myself for not having seen this beforehand.

Ready to go

Going

Back to the run... we kept up a good brisk pace, but it wasn't a race by any means and we were chatting most of the way around.  The inimitable Becky caught up with us twice around Mottisfont and once in Lockerley.

Thumbs up in Mottisfont...

...and hello Becky in Lockerley

The long hill from Lockerley up to Gatmore Copse was a long grind, made quite challenging by the brisk headwind.  Then it was downhill to Sherfield English and a final few km on the back roads to East Wellow at a respectable lick.

We had to pfaff around a bit at the end, turning back on ourselves to complete 25km without going back up the steep hill - no point in creating extra work.  We finished in 1:55:46, on the back of a lovely tempo run through beautiful open countryside in good company.  And with no end in sight to the freeze on all proper racing, this had been a fabulous outing.

The salty runners of Romsey - with Ian, Susie and Alice