His place at my side was, however, taken by a young teenager probably 45 years my junior, Oscar Bamford of Sale Grammar. Coming together at 1K he glued himself to my right shoulder and resolutely anchored himself there until well past 4K. Unfortunately as we went through after 2 of the 3 laps my right lace came undone, threatening a fall. But with a constant presence and with only a mile to go I tried to ignore it and race on........going for the Oscar! From 4K strength and experience just managed to overcome youthful talent but the young man had showed terrific battling quality and like Peter Maw will no doubt be spurred on to take my grey haired scalp at another month's race.
Self treatment on Friday and Saturday eased the soreness in the knee area and they held out today. Evaluating the overall performance the splits.....4.04 4.11 4.10 4.08 4.02 showed pleasing endurance strength and given the time of year and the balance of distance to speed training I have to be satisfied with 20.35. It was only seconds short of my undeclared prerace wish time of 20.30 and equal to my 2009 best. 28th of the 125 who finished.
Pat (pictured here) also made her racing debut for 2010 with a solid 27.32 and resolves that there is more to come. 91st today and a minute behind the 74 year old Peter E.I'll no doubt be returning to the event later in the year but just hope that the parts of the course which have suffered really badly due to the snow and ice will have been repaired for our next visit. Quite tricky underfoot in places.
So mixed fortune on the day and extra care needed when wearing those shoes again. Another week which went to plan. No days missed. A good track session, 45 miles on the week, maintaining the 2010 weekly average at 51 miles.
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