Salisbury (virtual) 10, 2020

I'd largely given up on the idea of virtual racing this year, after tiring of sloitary flagellation around local roads in the early days of lockdown when meeting up to run with others was a non-starter.

But the virtual Salisbury 10, originally scheduled for April this year, caught my eye because we were invited to run it on the actual race route. I got in touch with Alex Prinsep, with whom I'd had a fierce battle in 2019, and we fixed a date. And then Liz and Keith joined in too, and it became a properly anticipated event.

Sunday 20 December dawned bright, still and cold. We met up at Salisbury leisure centre and stripped down to shiver in our singlets before trying to warm up.

Standing to attention with Keith, Alex and Liz

Alex and I started a few minutes after the others. I fluffed the start by running a 10-mile watch programme which told me I'd finished after 10 metres... what an eejit. Second time lucky, and the two of us set off through Salisbury, each of us nervous about getting the pacing right.

It was a fabulously bright morning, and the Avon valley was looking at its wintry best. We passed Keith and Liz, and a little later Abi and the lovely Mrs S, who were doing a social run. At about 4k Alex started to drop back, and I was rather unexpectedly on my own.

The remaining 12k went by without incident. I was pleased to maintain a reasonable pace on my own, and it was all fairly straightforward except for some chicanery around cars and other runners through the narrow lanes of Durnford on the homeward stretch. Abi and Mrs S were there to wave me on to the race track at the end, and I ran a bit extra because having bungled my 10-mile watch programme, I wasn't sure precisely how far to go in km and I didn't want to be just under.

So in the end I managed 1:01:48, about 90 seconds down on last year, but I was delighted with that on a semi-virtual event with minimal race condition. With a few days remaining, I'm in 6th pace in the virtual league. A tremendously invigorating and energising outing all round.

At the finish line

All 6 of us back safe - and congratulations Keith on his 10-mile PB