David Currie

It’s been a busy weekend with Duncan off at a party yesterday and then setting out our stall at the school car boot sale (a profitable couple of hours but we still came back with far more stuff than I’d hope to have!). Today it was the Hursley 10K and it was my turn to run this year. As an added incentive, this year I was running with #8 which, I was told, was based on the estimated time that I had submitted. What I also knew was that #1 had beaten me by some 4 minutes two years ago so I wasn’t trying to keep up from the start!

Things went well for the first half when I was in a pack of five behind the leading two runners. Unfortunately I started to fade after that (blood doning last Wednesday?) and also started to wretch around the 7km marker (something that’s affected me before in 10k races so there’s probably something wrong with my pre-race prep). I was therefore glad to hit the open at the end with no-one on my tail and could coast to finish in 7th place. Depending on how you look at things, either I was either 4 seconds slower that two years ago (gun time of 38:49) or one second faster (chip time of 38:45).

Both Emma and Duncan were entered in the children’s races. Duncan was off first in the KS1 race and declared that he wanted to run on his own. This was probably a mistake as he got his first stitch on the way round which was obviously paining him as he came in to the finish. Emma had a longer loop in the KS2 race and, although she claimed not to have enjoyed herself very much, put on a respectable show. She seems to have become very materialistic of late and was very put out at ‘just’ getting a buff, bag, banana and water bottle!

We then had to race off as Emma was meant to be singing with the Brownies at the local fun day (she’d already missed singing with the school). We arrived just in time for her to enter the arena having no idea what she was meant to be singing! She needn’t have worried though as it was virtually impossible to hear them over the band playing at the other end of the rec. Thankfully there were long queues at most of the attractions to disuade Emma but she eventually decided that she would like to have a go on the pony rides. By this time I needed to get home to have a cup of tea and a sit down!

Opening the curtains on the first Saturday of the year to view a very wet garden and more rain on its way could only mean one thing: the Hampshire Cross-Country Champs! At least it was handy with Fleming Park once again being the venue. Christine braved the weather first, cycling there whilst I fed the children lunch. We then followed on in the car arriving just in time to watch her race start.

The courses are particularly convoluted which has the benefit that, as spectators, we didn’t have to move very far to see Christine, and the conditions, getting progressively muddier and muddier. The children were very good given the weather. Emma said it was great fun although, to be fair, I think this may have just been her new discovery of sarcasm. Christine finished just in time for me to hand over, strip off, and head to the start for the men’s race.

Last time I ran this course two years ago, I started far too fast on the first lap only to realise that I still had to go round twice more. Knowing this still didn’t stop me repeating the error! I’ve strategically chosen a picture of Christine to accompany this post as, once you’ve removed the blurred and out of focuse photos she took, your just left with ones of me looking like an old man in lots of pain. I waded round the 11.5km of mud in 46:23, some 35 seconds slower than in 2013 and ended up four places further down in 45th place. By way of consolation, when I really am an old man next year and qualify as a veteran, I just need to shave off 16 seconds to end up in to top 5 M40s!

It was the Hursley 10K today and this year the weather was a bit kinder to us. It was my turn to run in the main race and I felt pretty good as I set off out the field in second place. The guy out in front just continued to pull away and eventually finished two and a half minutes clear. I and another run exchanged places for second up until around 6k where I started to get a splitting headache. This was bad timing as I just couldn’t push myself up the hill on the gravel track. There was then a steady stream of runners passing me and I ended up finishing in 8th place. My thanks go to the runner from Lordshill who encouraged me on across the last field which meant me finishing time of 38:45 was still marginally quicker than two years ago. Still not sure what brought the headache on (it still hasn’t quite left me yet). It may have been a lack of fluids (it felt very humid and I was certainly sweating buckets at the end) or it may be the start of a cold (I’ve certainly had a sore throat the past couple of days).

Emma was entered for the fun run and was determined to run round on her own this time. However, she met a school friend when warming up on the bouncy castle (!) and they ran round together. She had a big smile on her face at the end which is the important thing.

Today was the day of the Eastleigh 10K and Fun Run. As the latter wasn’t until the afternoon, I went over on my own in the morning. It wasn’t exactly ideal conditions with the temperature hovering just above zero and even that was until you took the biting cold in to account. At least it was dry though! I had put 36 minutes down as my target time and, having never done a 10K on the (reasonably) flat before, I wasn’t really sure how realistic this was. (My PB is, I believe, 35:36 at the undulating Brading 10K back in 2004).

The race started fairly well and I made it round the first half in 17:45. Unfortunately, although my legs felt fine, my stomach wasn’t happy . I was wretching at 9k and finally parted company with the contents of my stomach just after I crossed the finish line in 36:32. I’m not sure if I hadn’t left enough time after breakfast (I’ve got too used to going running on a Tuesday evening straight after dinner, forgetting what a difference it makes when you’re really trying!) or whether it was the slightly out-of-date gel I had in the half an hour before the start. Either way, it’s not a bad time but I’m left wondering what it could have been…

I returned home to pick up the rest of the family so that Emma could run the 2K fun run. Her only other race was in the pouring rain at the Hursley 10K last year so this may have seemed like a distinct improvement. She did, however, start off in all of the clothes you see in the photo, only discarding the coat because it was getting in the way a bit! She insisted on going round on her own (probably off the back of last week’s string course). I’ve no idea how long she took (probably something around 10 minutes if the timestamps on the photos I took afterwards are to be believed) but most importantly she was still smiling at the end. Then only one more trip to Fleming Park for swimming lessons later in the day!