Test Way relay success

21It was an overcast day for this year’s Test Way relay although still a bit too humid for running to be really comfortable. Although there had been some changes to the teams, Christine and I were still down to run the leg from Mottisfont to Romsey. As we warmed up, the leading Winchester ladies team came through about twenty minutes ahead of the rest of the field. After a couple of mixed teams, Christine went out in second place with Graeme McRobert who had kindly stepped in at the last minute to act as minder.

I had to wait another eight minutes or so for Andy Morgan-Lee to come in as the first mens runner (the men start an hour later than the other teams). Apparently Winchester had taken a wrong turn earlier in the race losing them 15 minutes. I had to negotiate a few randomly parked cars on the way out of the start but was soon on my way. Running seemed like hard work – don’t know if this was because my legs were tired or just because I was running fast! I was also conscious that my ankle was still a bit dodgy from last weekend.

Only had to consult the map once as I was running along when a sharp right turn didn’t feel right. Turned out that this was the point we’d run a different route on the return journey when trying out the leg so everything was okay. Finished in 35’07 which, although nearly five minutes down on the course record, would still have put me in second place last year. Although I didn’t quite catch Christine, more importantly no-one overtook me and Southampton went on to win the mens title again.

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