David Currie

Yesterday saw the continuation of a recent tradition: a run around all of the pubs that hosted us following our Tuesday night runs in the summer. This year that entailed taking in the Beaulieu Road Inn, Oak Inn (Bank), Sir Walter Tyrell (Rufus Stone), Royal Oak (Fritham) and Fighting Cocks (Godshill). Seven of us gathered at the first of these at 9 o’clock on a frosty but sunny morning. We set a leisurely pace and stuck to a well trodden path bar a minor detour where the Forestry Commission had closed a ride for ‘consolidation’. Refreshements on route were provided at Minstead courtesy of the Yeos (although sadly none could be persuaded to join the run). I handed over to Christine at Fritham where Peter Smith also retired. This left Sue Sleath, Stuart Boden, Neil Broderick, Roderick Johnstone and Peat Allan as the five to complete this year’s run in its entirety (just over 17 off-road miles in a smidge under 3 hours). Neil continued with his form of recent years by finishing with blood running down his leg from a fall within half a mile of the start (albeit an injury actually sustained a week early!).

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It was Hants Cross Country on Saturday and, after a bit of indecision caused by my cold and Christine’s gentle return to running, we decided to make the most of Christine’s parents being around to child mind and run. Christine didn’t get much of a warm-up as she was needed to assist me with the removal of poo from all the way up Duncan’s back, Christine’s parent having conveniently taken Emma off to look at the planes (the event being held at Popham Airfield near Micheldever Station). She had a respectable run though and was no-where near the back of the field which is where she would have had you believe that she would be.

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Being the first Tuesday of the month, it had to be a trip to Sainsburys, but we were missing Peter and Neil for Tuesday’s run (who would normally provide direction). Andy and myself were at the front as we crossed the Avenue and, for some reason, I let Andy turn us left and was then happy to take the next right. This meant we got to do an extra circuit (and hill) before rejoining the normal route at the sports centre. No harm done though. Towards the end, Stuart made the fatal statement “it’s actually not a bad night for running” at which point it started raining.
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There was chaos on the M27 Eastbound yesterday evening and as a result routes in to Southampton were also snarled up. Unfortunately, the only other person who knew that I was intending to run was held up in the same traffic. Arriving 10 minutes late the group had already departed but thankfully I spotted Sam as I was driving in and we went for a run together. We mostly did the Itchen Bridge route although, making the most of there being just two of us, we came back via the stadium rather than the usual route up the avenue so that Sam could cut-off home.
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Yesterday evening I headed down to Southampton University, not for the IBM Hursley Lecture (more shame me), but for the first of the winter road runs from the University. Thankfully the “mini tornado” that passed through work earlier in the day was long gone but it left a clear sky and a nip in the air. This accounts for the fact that my GPS trace doesn’t start at the beginning of the run – I was too busy sheltering in the warmth of the Murray Building to get a satellite fix before we started!
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I’ve said it before, but will say it again: there’s nothing like a Hants Cross-Country race to highlight the relative slowness of my running! Things were no different at the first race of this year’s league at Farley Mount on Saturday. I started the race too far back and had to jog up the first hill trying not to trip over the masses. I then spent the first of three laps overtaking people but for the remaining two I could just about maintain my position. This was despite having brought 7 supporters to cheer me on! I finished in 100th place, well down on previous years, which gives me plenty to work on for the rest of the season. Hopefully I’ll be getting more sleep by the next race and I’ll try not to have the celebratory roast lunch beforehand!
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As per last week’s post, we moved to Fritham for Tuesday’s run. I was pretty tired having cycled in to work as well as racing in the afternoon. I was therefore particularly despondent to see Neil doing multiple laps of each of the six ponds! I still can’t decide whether to run the Clarendon Way Marathon at the weekend – whether it will just tire me out further or will prove good training. It would help if I believed that I might actually manage to run round at less than top speed, but then I start to think, why not just go for a training run rather than enter a race?
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