After evening of torrential rain this morning was surprising pleasant. I wasn't sure if I should run this race having just recovered from a twisted ankle in Newcastle but it looked like a nice forest route and it was such a beautiful morning that I though why not.
I arrived at the race headquarters in good time, a new one for me. There was a big turnout and it was obviously well organised. The start time was 11am and we marched from the HQ to the start line in one group. I found myself close to the front of the group and thought about moving back but the crowd had formed behind me so I decided to stay. After a few speeches was were off, bang on time.
The race started on the road and entered the forest through a side gate. Once inside it got very peaceful, the running surface was very good and I felt pretty good. The pace to begin with was fast and I kept up with the faster runners for as long as I could. I kept overtaking the same guy, he was wearing a full tracksuit and I could understand how he was doing so well wearing all that cloth. He was taking the sprint-jog approach which never works for me. I started losing ground at around 6K which marked a gradual but definite deceleration. As we approached the finish the sprint-jog guy flashed past me, looks like his technique paid off.
I arrived at the finish line 57:47 which was much better than I expected. That's an average pace of 9:19, not bad for an ex-cripple.
Here's a link my the race stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1079521
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