Running around town

Last weekend I had the enviable luxury of running a race around my own neighbourhood. Zoe at work had organised a team to run in the Osbourne Clarke Corporate Challenge – a 5.5km x 4 relay within the Reading Half Marathon. I’d chosen to run the third leg – the start was in town next to Forbury Gardens and the finish of the leg just outside my house. Plus I’d be able to grab a quick coffee before the start. No brainer really.

So with some time to spare for a quick cuppa, Tasha and I wandered down into town to Picnic where I settled down to a fresh Americano and a flapjack (fuel, of course!). I’d worked it so we’d theoretically have tons of time to spare, but moments after sitting down Tasha exclaimed that the first runners were going past. I ran outside to see a skinny dude sprinting ahead of the lead car. 27min had elapsed and this dude was just short of half distance! In other words just shy of 2:45/km! Incredible.

I was expecting our first two runners to do about 4:30/km, so I knew I still had at least 20 minutes, but seeing the main feature race leaders got the competitive adrenaline pumping and I was anxious to get out.

It worked out well, I had time to warm-up, settle myself and find a good waiting spot in the relay change-over area in good time for our runner coming through. I was a bit confused as I’d expected Edward, not Zoe, but that was all immaterial – it was time to get on with it as we were about 8 places down!

I bolted off and soon found myself tripping over the gaggle of half marathoners filling up the road. It was a bit frustrating as I battled to find my stride, but forced me to settle and concentrate on the job at hand. As soon as we got out of the confines of the inner city (Reading, being small, meant this happened quite quickly) I found I was able to find more space to open the taps. A nice short, sharp climb early in the leg also helped me make up some ground and also had the effect of stringing out the field.

Now I found myself on the undulating road to Prospect Park, concentrating on my stride and taking in as much air as I could. I felt a bit fraudulent was blasting past many of the runners on the road, most of them no doubt running the full distance, but I was intent on making up some places in the relay race. Unfortunately the race numbers were on the front so it wasn’t possible to distinguish the relay runners from the half-marathoners, so I couldn’t “pick out my marks” – so all I could do was push.

The climb up past Prospect hurt a bit and it was also quite narrow which meant it was quite congested. Then again, the stretch down Bath Road/ onto Castle Hill and the end of the leg was wide and open – and it hurt even more as I opened up the taps all the way.

I found Edward looking fairly calm at the relay point. A glance at my watch read 19’41” which was a bit off my target of 19 minutes flat, but still decent I thought.

It was quite luxurious to be able to simply wander down the road into my front door and a warm shower – a great reward! Overall our team did 1:29’40” which secured us 4^th place out of 50 teams, 9 minutes off the lead and a minute off the podium – not a bad showing at all.

So now I look forward to the Midland Road Relays Championships on the 5th April which will have me either doing a 5 or 8km leg (from what I can work out it is 8x3mi or 4x5mi). Either way, it should be a blast. I just hope I can find a bit more speed before then.