Against my better instincts I put in my entry to the winter series a month or so ago and so it was no surprise when my race pack arrived - although this year there is no timing tag to wrap around your shoelaces. Now it's all done via a transponder on your race number and that's very neat and tidy. Also this will be my fifth successive year at the winter series at least (my Garmin records don't go any further back) and it is quite nice to maintain something of a tradition.
On the other hand maintaining anything wasn't my primary thought when I set off for my usual warm-up run around the course. For some reason my legs felt very much out of sorts and I couldn't get my breathing right at all; it was really quite odd feeling so maladjusted and I cut my loop short just to be done with it. So I wasn't in a great frame of mind when Anthony turned up, fresh from the World Championships in Beijing, but it's always nice to have someone to talk to given how rarely my family turn up to witness me compete/suffer. In no time at all we were being put under starter's orders and then we were off.
Buoyed up by the enthusiasm all around I started a little too quickly and it soon became obvious that today wasn't going to be my moment in the sun - metaphorically speaking. My only hope soon became that slow and steady would win the day but realistically it seemed unlikely that everyone in front of me would get caught out by the heat and fall apart. Oh well; attrition is never that great a race strategy anyway. So I plowed on and in a way things did settle down. After a while I began catching a few stragglers purely because I was keeping to a steady pace and not engaging in any fireworks. In fact even when a late-charging athlete caught me in the final 100m I didn't bother to change my pace - by that point there was very little to run for.
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| Slow and steady alright |
So today was rather a disappointment to be honest. I didn't run well, turning in a poor 42:25 and a pedestrian 36th place, and never really felt in the race for once. In fact I barely even started, let alone finished, a warm-down run and that's unusual for me; normally I'll force myself to do something because I know that it makes a difference but today I felt beyond caring. I don't know if this is just a symptom of lacking base fitness or something else but I'll be happy if I'm in a different place next month that's for sure!
Distance: 8.7 miles
Time: 1h 03m 06s