On the way to the start line I managed to fit in just over a kilometre's worth of jogging to warm up. During which I discovered that there was such a thing a half-term-athon. I'm glad I didn't know about this beforehand as I may have been tempted to join in!
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| [photo: Nicki Clark] |
Once all of the runners were assembled we were quickly taken through the usual pre-run announcements, and then without much delay dispatched to do our best on the course.
I thought somewhere around tempo pace would be good for today's run, so I set off nice and strong. For a change I didn't start right at the back.
The first lap went by quite nicely, I smiled to myself as I ran across the sleeping policemen (see my Riddlesdown course description on the parkrunfans blog).
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| [photo: Laura Land] |
Once I had come back around to the start line I had caught up with David. I passed him here, but then further along the path I saw some dogs and I could feel my body tensing up. I slowed my pace and just before the hole in the fence David re-took the position. I almost collided with David as he went past, completely my fault, I was too bust fretting over the scary dogs. David, if you read this - sorry!
Thankfully we went past the dogs without incident and once we had turned into the trail section I felt confident enough to push the pace again.
I thought my place was secure until near the end I could hear someone breathing behind me. It was a runner that I had passed much earlier on in the run. As we turned onto the final straight I could sense that he was gaining on me. I had just done enough and managed to cross the line four seconds ahead of him.
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| [photo: Nicki Clark] |
Mrs7t and Lime were waiting for me at the finish line. We quickly went to the registration table and then back to the car as we had to drive down to Redhill to pick up our new car, before returning to the Horseshoe for some tea and to find out what goodies were in our graze box.
steve.
