Not again...

Small local race today in aid of a small children's hospital which takes care of terminally ill children (I think!). Expected it to be pretty low key as this is the first time it has been organised, except for the £50 prize money for 1st place.

Drove up there in a bit of a rush as I was late waking up and slow at getting everything ready. Packed a pair of cross country shoes as well as a normal pair of running shoes as the route is partly off road. The event HQ was a equestrian centre, not the luxury sort like Kiara, with fields all around it. There were some fields where something had been planted (probably wheat) and been harvested for autumn so there were some sharpish stubble poking out from the soil. Ouch. Hope we don't have to run through those fields.

Looked around during the warmup and couldn't really see any very fast runners except for Trevor and another guy who looked very serious (in terms of running physique, not expression on face). Trevor is usually a sub 37' 10k runner but has been recovering from injury recently. I actually finished 1 place ahead of him in the 4 mile race 2 weeks ago but I'm sure he is getting back to his old form.

My plan was to run with Trevor and he had the same plan too. We just had to keep an eye on any other fast runners and make up a plan as we went. The horn sounded and everyone was off across a ploughed field. It had been dry the past couple of days so the surface was quite hard. The serious-looking runner that we saw shot off into the lead. Tried to go at his pace but it was a bit too quick so I dropped back and went at my own pace. Trevor also did the same.

The lead runner started pulling away into the distance. I was feeling pretty good at this point and was swapping turns on the front with Trevor. Coming round a bend into a junction with a marshall, I was directed past several parked cars. Stupidly I went straight on into a field while the actual route went right up a hill. Damn!! Lost about 10s as I made a quick stop and U-turn to get back on course. Practically sprinted up the hill to catch up with Trevor and I think this is where I lost the plot by trying too hard.

Eventually I found it harder and harder to keep pace with Trevor. Started slipping back bit by bit. The thought of £50 being too far ahead to catch also made it mentally difficult to keep pushing hard. As this is a cross country race with a bit of road thrown in, there was no chance of doing a fast time (and no guarantee that the route was the right distance anyway). A weak mind is one of the worst things to have in a short race as the need to push through the discomfort barrier is an important requirement in these races.

Breathing hard and legs feeling a bit heavy, I finally got to the final section which I recognised from my warm-up / pre-race recce. Up the pace a bit but Trevor was about 100m ahead with insufficient distance to catch him. Managed to do a bit of a sprint for the crowds and finished in a slow time for the quoted distance in 3rd place just under 20s down on Trevor. Sat down for a while to recover but realised my legs didn't feel all that bad.

Trevor concurred with my suspicion that the race was somewhat longer than 5km. The terrain wasn't enough to cause such a big drop in speed. I found out that the guy who was going to walk off with £50 today also won the race I was in last week (Brambles 10k). Well I can't really complain as he did 33' something last week, way beyond my league (and still faster than Trevor even if he was going well).

This is definitely my last race for a while. Need to do a bit more training (which I haven't really done a lot of lately) and perhaps do a few off-road races in late October to November. Recent lack of speedwork is really showing but autumn isn't the time to do it. Better to build up endurance in the colder weather.

Location 52°N 2°W