David Currie

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 or whether it was the slightly out-of-date gel I had in the half an hour before the start.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!

Unfortunately Saturday’s good weather did not extend to the entire weekend. Christine cycled down to Hursley for the start of her 10K. The rest of us followed later, arriving just in time to see Christine finish. Unfortunately we then had to wait about an hour for the children’s fun run to start during which time the rain strengthened. Emma went round in wellies and waterproofs and even then, wasn’t too happy with the rain driving in to her face. She was smiling at the end though and her medal went in to school today. No-one had much enthusiasm for attending the Hiltingbury Extravaganza in the afternoon though.

1028Christine is now a member of Eastleigh Running Club and volunteered to help marshal at their annual Marwell 10K. This, of course, had nothing to do with securing free entry to the wildlife park for her and her two little helpers! I had to run 10K to get my ticket in to the event! We arrived early for Christine’s briefing and then I had to sit outside the entrance for half an hour until competitors were allowed in to the park. I then watched the fun run with them (Emma was a week too young to run) before heading off to warm up.

At the start, I placed myself squarely in the 35-40 minute start box. There were a fair number of people in the box in front but it’s an undulating course and, as the results show, only two people actually made it back in under 35 minutes. I found it pretty hard going and when we hit the downhill stretch from 6k to the finish I couldn’t pick up the pace. Still, I finished in 37:33 which was under the 38 minutes I would have predicted and over a minute less than my time from 2005 so I must be improving with age!

Christine failed miserably to take any pictures of me running so here’s a random one of me from one of her club mates. Although it was a little bit nippy, we then proceeded to make the most of the rest of our day at Marwell.