It was the third race of the Hants X-Country League today staged by Overton Harriers. My pre-race preparation wasn’t exactly ideal… Christine’s away so a) I didn’t need to be there for the womens race, b) there was no one to nag me to get there early and c) there was no one to map read on the way there. Consequently, I left home late and took a wrong turn in Whitchurch where I was slightly thrown by a horse dressed as a reindeer doing U-turns in the middle of the road with its cart! Ended up having to run the 2km from the car park to the start, arriving just in time to throw on my Southampton vest before the klaxon sounded.
Things didn’t improve much during the race. The course was round Ashe Meadows and included a good selection of hills and a fair splattering of mud. My legs just wouldn’t pull me up the hills fast enough and I was being overtaken the whole way round. In the end I was surprised to come 76th: think there must have been less people running than at Farley Mount. Maybe it’s just as well that we’ll be out the country for the Hants Champs in January!