This was my much-anticipated first race of the year, after taking time out to recover from an injured hamstring. Actually, this isn't quite true; last week Mrs S and I paced clubmate Lottie to a target sub-58 minute finish at the Eastleigh 10k, in which we finished in 57:55... neat result!
I'd done a couple of 10-mile runs in the past two weeks, and got some pacier club sessions under my belt, but really nothing approaching what I would consider proper training for this race. The last time I ran this as a full-on (as opposed to virtual race) was in 2019, when I finished just behind Alex Prinsep in 1:00:25. This time? Well, I reckoned sub 1:02 would be a respectable result.
The day dawned cool (6 degrees or so) and damp after a rainy night. The race HQ was rammed with people and there was a long queue to collect race numbers. By the time we were done, there wasn't much time for any kind of race rep, just a few leg swings, then it was time to get into the start queue. I joined it conservatively far back, then changed my mind and moved forward until I could see Alan Graham a few metres ahead of me. Alan always sets off too fast!
We set off through the start gantry and then through a bottleneck of slippy mud (accompanied by much ironic cheering) before hitting the road. I worked hard on relaxing and finding a comfortable pace. First km down in 3:55 which was bang on target. The second downhill km was 3:31, after which I settled into a nice 3:43 pace. I was moving gently through the field and feeling good. There was a gentle northerly headwind which was reassuring - this meant I'd get assistance on the way home.
I arrived at the halfway point in 30:25 in good shape, with some guy calling out position - I was 40th at this point. I'd forgotten how charming the road is on the east side of the Avon through Durnford - a really lovely country lane. There are a couple of hills on this stretch, in which I found myself running with Richard Brawn (Bournemouth AC) and Emma Jolley (Portsmouth AC). The three of us were overtaking each other until about 8 miles, when Emma fell back slightly. At this point we had a view of the spire and I reckoned that with a bit of a push I could finish sub 1:01.
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| Pushing uphill alongside Emma and Richard |
Richard and I kept pushing each other as we closed in on the finish. I was right at my threshold level at this stage. Off the road and onto the cycle path for what is always a hard slog until you can see the running track. Richard was just ahead of me by this stage, and I was really blowing up as I rounded the tracked and heaved myself over the line.
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| Heaving for all I'm worth |
I finished in 1:00:21, four seconds ahead of my 2019 time, and a century best. Wow! Here are my stats. This was my first race wearing Nike Vaporflys; what difference did they make? Difficult to tell, but anecdotally a minute or so. But most of my peers are wearing these shoes or their equivalents, and I was thrilled to bag the M55 prize.
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| Strava's race analysis |
Mrs S had had a blinder of a race too, getting close to her all-time, pre-rheumatism best with a powerful final section. We retuned home as two very happy bunnies.
