A poor do

What was supposed to be the culmination of a summer of decent road speed training turned into a soggy, slow mess.

I decided it would be ok to leave home at 6pm to drive up to Dumfries. Getting home at 5pm after a decent walk with the dogs I opted for an hour on the settee watching telly. Fast forward 50 minutes when I was awoken by a ringing phone. Phone call over and quickly bundled gear, dogs, myself into the 4x4 and whizz up the road North.

Get to event HQ - 1848
Park up, collect number, remove pants, fasten trainers - 1855
Find suitable bush for pee 1857
Jog approx 50metres to line up 1859
Race begins 1900

Started OK. Lying about 8th in a bunch of about 5 lads.
2K marker - rain begins - very heavy indeed. My favourite weather to race in (because it rained heavy in London 2004 when I ran my marathon PB and also during my win at Langdale '07)
3k marker - group splinters - now I am about 10th and not feeling great - legs hurt.
Garmin battery is flat so no info on how fast I am going. I turn it on every K or so to get an instant pulse figure before it switches itself off again. Pulse only in mid 160s. Not good, should be mid to high 170s for a short race like this.
5k marker - settle into 12th place. Not getting caught but already disappointed with the whole thing..

10k - finish. No idea of my time but next runner behind is someone I know. We chat and he shows me his time of 37:01. I probably did about 36:30 odd.

Prize presentation for this always takes an age so I head off home after a quick cake and cuppa.

Fellow Border Harrier Gareth ran well tonight, a short 35 - exactly what I was expecting. When I think that just 3 days after the 50, I finished a 10k only a few seconds behind him, I am even more certain that I could have had a decent result here. Obviously the pre race prep was poor - (should have done a warm up of 2miles or so). Perhaps I have also neglected the mile reps recently, and also the very fast (sub 32minute) laps of Gelt with Plucky. At least i got first Vet again. Thats 4 out of 4 in road races since I turned 40.

Still, move on to the next goal. Langdale marathon is two weeks on Sunday. Tomorrow will be 2 laps of the hilly 6.5mile road circuit at Talkin/Foresthead. Will try to really BLAST lap 2.