David Currie

360It was the fifth RR10 last night, taking place at a sunny Itchen Valley Country Park. I had an audience this time as Christine and Emma both came along. My legs felt a bit stiff from Tuesday night’s run in the forest – perhaps not surprising given it has been my only run in the past week. I started fairly fast, partly because I had forgotten just how far you have to go on the third lap of the course. Annoyingly though, my current lack of training seemed to pay dividends as, although I started too slowly, I still managed to move up the results again, finishing in 12th place. This just pushes me in to the top ten for the series so far. It was also great to see IBM Hursley Runners men’s team take an impressive 7th place.

Christine’s Mum has been staying with us since the weekend which has enabled me to get out and about in the evenings – Tuesday night run and pub and then RR10 yesterday. The rain had stopped earlier but I suspect half-term meant numbers were a little down at the race. Although sluggish my legs didn’t feel too tired – probably a result of four days enforced ‘rest’ over the weekend. That and, in the last couple of kms, I knew that the pain was nothing compared to with what Christine had been through! I finished in 15th place – my best so far this year.

Miraculously I’ve now made it to two RR10s in a row. Tonight’s was at Wilverley Plain in the New Forest. Despite arriving in good time I was a little caught out when the race started two minutes early. The first third of the course round the plain was a bit of an all out sprint so it’s perhaps not surprising that I started to fade a little in the undulations of the middle section. This wasn’t helped by having to stop twice to retie each shoelace. (I should always remember: round laces = double knots.) I recovered a bit towards the end, although on the final long straight stretch I was slowing fast and the finish line couldn’t come soon enough. I ended in 22nd position, disappointingly a few places down on last time but I’ll put that down to the laces!