David Currie

43Ran the Grizzly yesterday and survived! The twentyish odd miles from Seaton to Weston and back was reduced to about 18.5 due to a recent landslide but this was made up for by the general dampness and bitterly cold wind. Although running in shorts, I did start wearing two Hellys, a Goretex and gloves.

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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!

The first race of the Hampshire Cross-Country series took place today at nearby Farley Mount. There was a good turnout from Southampton Running Club with both mens and womens teams. The 3km loop has a couple of steep climbs and descents and, although dry underfoot, is bumpy in places. The senior men complete three laps and the women two.

Christine was feeling unwell but struggled round to fill the last place in the womens team. My legs were, not unsurprisingly, still a bit tired from last weekend so I deliberately didn’t race off at the start. I didn’t feel too bad after the first lap so picked up the pace a little and jockeyed for position with Eric Parker, also from Southampton. As we climbed the ascent at the start of the third and final lap I was able to pull away. Couldn’t quite catch Matt West despite the hamstring injury that was obviously giving him grief at the end. Finished in 68th place in a time of 33:14.

Took part in my second Clarendon Way Marathon today from Winchester to Salisbury (having done the half a number of times before that). Set off far too fast but then I was also running the first leg for an IBM Hursley Runners relay team. There were two other relay teams out in front and then three of us marathon runners together. After the first changeover one of the three made a break and I went after him.

We made it through the halfway point at Broughton before the half marathon competitors started (an hour and a half after we set off). I was out in front at this point after the Pewsey Vale runner had slowed to take on fuel. The first half marathon runner went past at about eighteen miles (he later took the course record in a time of 72 minutes).

By this point I was starting to slow on the hills and, at around twenty miles, I was finally overtaken. There was no way I could keep up and, as the miles dragged on, I was starting to worry I wouldn’t make it back in under three hours as I had hoped. I eventually staggered over the finish line in 2:58:57, five minutes down on the winner but still in second place.

Congratulations to Christine’s Mum (Sue Ashton) was came ninth in W50 at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships held in Keswick yesterday.

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.
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