Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 January 2004 22:11:11
well i've got some catching up to do, with three things worthy of note yesterday and at least one today, i'd best do this in instalments.
sunday moring was a local race with a start time of 11am meaning a respectable brekkie time of 8:30 and enough time to survey the weather.. down to -3c overnight but bright and sunny when i got up.
'not the roman IX' is a 12km race.. which used to be a 9mile race.. hence the name! i caught a lift with andy to tiddington, near stratford-on-avon (birthplace of shakespeare etc etc yadda yadda yadda), and registered before pinning my race number to my top and deciding how much kit to wear, braving shorts but not short sleeves!
unusually the car park was several hundred metres from the registration & finish line and the start a further kilometre away which at least provided a warm up.
being quite a popular race the starting area was split into predicted times, i loitered around the 55minute marker and andy wandered up further since he's faster. i was wearing my distinctively spotty tri-club top and was pleased to see a few others from the club here too.
the race started on time and was well marshalled throughout, although the second water station (which i wasn't even expecting) appeared some way before the signs for it which was slightly perplexing.
a good part of the first half was uphill with a range of long gentle and short sharp climbs, i tried to keep a short fast pace up the hills and stretch out a bit over the top. the second half had some knee wrenching downhills and nice fast flat bits before passing the back end of the starting area followed by a right turn. 800m to go marker spurred me on, 400m to go well thats just the same again then, 200m to go.. still?!! a sharp slippy left and over the finish. i had a nice flying final kilometre and passed plenty.
managed not to be sick as we were all funnelled through the finish, which was nice, before collecting one of the most original and useful race momentoes i've had, a nice slate coaster.
tea and cake afterwards scored very highly too, all in all a good morning jaunt :)
slightly random splits as follows:
start line 0:24
2km 9:10
3km 4:22 (didn't mean to record this one)
4km 4:36
6km 8:31
8km 7:27 (must have been a downhill bit)
10km 8:06
12km 8:06
= 51:04 watch time (51:06 official time)
position: 146/755
full results and report here
oh and in other slightly amusing news... i'm a nationally ranked athlete... 19th male.. and 5th senior (<40)... full list here
well there's your first installment.. time for a cup of tea i think.
[todays run: 7.5miles? 0:51:06 6:49min/mile av 4:26min/km av]
[this weeks run total: 28.4]