Mmmmm. With a light heart drove the 2 hours to Pewsey with Mary, looking forward to a race at which I had performed well in the past. Lovely easy journey up the A303 to Stonehenge and then up the Avon valley to Pewsey. .
Excellent entry for a midweek race, and spent some time warming up with Gordon Wiltshire, now 71, whose V60 times I have been trying to emulate for the last 3 years. Every inch an athlete, Gordon is looking forward to his confrontation with John Perratt in the SW Vets 5k Championship at the end of the month. That should be a race to see (Yeovilton at Noon on Bank Holiday Monday).
Set off in good heart, but found the going very tough up out of the town... the first mile seemingly going on and on. It arrived in the end, but I was horrified to see 6:35 on my watch. Grief, what's wrong with me? And so it continued. I was running at absolute maximum, pushing at every opportunity, and finding lead in my legs.
OK, it was hot and humid, butI felt like a veritable snail. By the time I arrived back at the start/finish I was all in, and glad to stop. The time? 32:56, an all time personal worst for 5 miles.
Jogged around for a while until the first sheet of results were posted. The winner only ran 29:02 on a course that usually returns a 26-minute winner, and I had won the V60s by over 5 minutes from the aformentioned Gordon W. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. No one was within minutes of any of the (carefully calculated and displayed) course records although some very decent athletes were there.
Write it down to experience I guess... I hope the Yeovilton 5k next Wednesday returns a rather more encouraging result!
(RR)
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