Andrew Halliday reports: Conditions were warm but the course is exposed to the elements. I’ve raced the course 7 times over the past 15 months and this was the windiest I’ve known it.
Of the 136 runners, I noticed Stuart Hopkins of Kenilworth at the start line. As Stuart had run 33 min 5 sec in the recent Telford 10k, I knew he was the one to try and beat. Richard White, of BRAT, whom I had beaten the previous month, was also in attendance. Stuart and Richard went off fast from the start and went through 5k in sub 16m 30s.
I managed to catch Stuart at the 4 mile point, but had left too big a gap to claw back on Richard over the last mile. Try as I might, I could only claw back half the gap and lost by 10s in the end. Richard won the race in 27m 3s, with me finishing 2nd in 27m 13s and Stuart 3rd in 27m 23s.
My course PB is 26m 54s (in near-perfect conditions), so to run 27m 13s in very windy conditions was easily a better performance, even if the time was slower. I did, however, made the fatal mistake of underestimating an opponent. Richard was fully fit and had massively improved from the previous month. His performance was outstanding in those conditions.
The next Centurion race is in 4 weeks, and I intend to work harder, apply better race tactics and blast off from the start next time.
But the good news is I’m fully fit for the 3rd race in a row, and running faster than ever. It’s mainly due to my unusual training regime of not running but aquajogging! That aside, I am absolutely dreading the xc hills of Cofton having acclimatized to the flat roads and paths over the past 2 weekends of racing, and currently looking in the “Excuses For Not Racing When Fully Fit Manual” for guidance. So Rob, keep your mobile phone turned on!!!
Full results. (PDF)
Pics from Centurion.
Congratulations Andrew and Caroline. Very commendable efforts in such windy conditions. Hopefully a 1st 1st in the near future.
Gyda nerth ymlaen/Forward with strength
Barrie Roberts
Chris
Thanks – don’t spend it all at once! I had to get away back to the kids as I find the presentations there take ages to sort.
Great result for Caroline. Maybe 1st place for both of us next time.
See you Saturday – Rob’s not buying any of my excuses so looks like I’ll have to race – I thought that “a pig has eaten my trainers” was pretty plausible but apparently not!
Andrew
A fantastic run from Caroline H-M finishing 2nd Lady in a new PB and new Club age best performance and is the 2nd fastest BvH Lady over 5 miles ever! Chris ran a new PB too..
Andy,
We stayed through the awards bit at the end, so I picked up your voucher for you before we left. I’ll bring it along to Cofton on Saturday. Well done for a good performance in pretty nasty conditions.
-Chris