12 June 2007
I’ve not managed much Summer Series action this year what with work keeping me away from midweek races and our family holidays coinciding with all the weekend fixtures (must remember to hide the WRC Newsletter in future). As I’m in the Midlands most weeks, I’ve decided to try to crash some of their evening races, to at least manage a bit of racing.
I didn’t know the area but the Banbury 5 sounded fairly flat and friendly and I could get there by train and bike. Within half a mile of the railway station I was already sweating, pushing my Brompton up a 10% gradient and re-thinking the town’s PB potential.
The storms had held off leaving it hot and humid as we lined up. This was race 5 in the East Mids GP. For many local clubs it was a double counter for their own series and large crowds of matching vests milled around in team Wilmslow fashion.
From the start I tagged along with the leading group but after a few hundred metres we began to bunch as they looked around checking out who was there. Sensing an opportunity, I snuck out into a 20m lead. I could hear some panicked muttering behind but ran on stretching the lead through the 1 mile marker in 5:13. However, the local lads had the advantage of knowing that there was the first of several short sharp hills just round the corner, and by 2 miles they’d all run past me again as my marathon-ready legs began to reject this new tempo pace.
By now we were running along undulating country lanes. It was a bit like Whitley but more hilly. I settled into a more sustainable pace and resolved that nobody else was coming past. So it continued until a sharp dip and rise at 3.5 miles when two runners burst past me including the leading lady who was really flying. Again local knowledge would have been handy as the final 1.5 miles was almost flat and it seemed everyone started a long charge in from this point. I chased after them and managed to regain my position and hold it on the run in to the finish.
My next Midlands race is a guest appearance at the Warwickshire 5 Mile Champs which is apparently held on a completely flat motor racing circuit. Not quite the fun of the Staffordshire Moorlands but should be an interesting challenge for the travelling Wilmslow vest…
8 Rob Downs 28:11 1MV40
338 finishers
Full results at: http://mcs.open.ac.uk/mkac/07emgpbanburyall.htm
(Some impressive women’s results here: L35 right on my tail and L45 not far behind.)
Rob