The Hampshire Cross Country season kicked off today at a sunny Farley Mount. As is traditional, my legs were still pretty knackered from last weekend’s exertions. I decided to try a new tactic: rather than starting near the front and hanging on for dear life, I started further back, intending to pick up the pace on each of the three laps.
Things didn’t get off to a good start: as the course narrowed for the first hill we were reduced to a walking pace. Once we’d reached the top, I then had to resist the temptation to start sprinting past the old men surrounding me!
For the third lap, the strategy started to pay off as I still had a good sprint left in my legs. Come the finish, my splits were 11:52, 11:27 and 11:11. Sadly the total of these was over a minute slower than last year for the same 9km course and I was lucky to just slip in to the top 100. Perhaps for the next race I’ll resort back to the old eyeballs out approach!