Buscot Park 10k, 2022

This was a new venue for us. Buscot Park is an impressive stately pile and estate near Faringdon in Oxfordshire, where the local rotary club stage an annual 5k and 10k race day. After a minor hamstring injury, this was my first race for about ten weeks, and my first as an M55.

As I've said before, Rotary races are invariably low-key, charming and rather delightful. But you can't afford to be too precious or exacting about the race details. After setting off, I found myself at the rear of 7 front-runners who quickly pulled away. After about a km we had two anticlockwise loops. By 3km I had pulled into third place, and from there it was fairly clear that I wasn't going to catch the guys ahead, and that I wasn't going to be challenged. So from then on I was on my own, but feeling OK about my pace. On the second lap I started lapping folk, with plenty of cheerful greetings.

At the end of the second lap, I had a reasonably clear expectation of what was going to happen - keep going at the T-junction, coming off the laps, to run the final section. But the two elderly chaps at the junction were pointing left. 'Second lap! I'm on my second lap!' I shouted, but still they pointed me left. OK, I thought, there must be a right turn ahead which will take me to the finish. But I had a bad feeling. I kept going until it was obvious I was in the wrong place. I kept my pace until my watch beeped 10km, and I turned around and jogged back to the start, wailing my frustration at the marshals as I passed them.

In my ignoble career of getting lost at races, this was a new twist. I soon got over my mini-sulk; it was a lovely course, and a lovely day, and I'd clocked up another configuration on the Stileman-gets-lost roulette table. Here's the Garmin record: Garmin Connect.