The day before the race, it turned out that Anna had acquired a bug, and dropped out. That was a pity. But I didn't change my plan. If I'm so against showing up in a car with only one person in it, then I shouldn't be the reason for Helen doing that. So we went.
Luckily, Helen had been there before, because I was losing all sense of direction when we hit the actual town. To my surprise, parking was easy. We decided to get our race numbers first. Yes, race numbers! Normally you don't have these in a Borders League, but it seemed that the organisation wanted to try out the system, in order to maybe implement it fully in the next season.
When we were on our way we also saw Olivia, who I had last seen at the Nick Beer. She had told me she had joined a running club, and was thinking of doing Borders League races. And this one was totally in her neck of the wood! It was good to see her. I also ate a sandwich, as I didn't think it would be a good idea to run the whole race only on my breakfast.
When we had our numbers we had a little walk through the park to see where the start and the finish were. I had been told that this park had inspired the design of Central Park in New York! I could imagine it had. It was nice. Then we went back to get into our running kit. I left my jumper on; I figured it was too cold to prance around in only a vest and shorts. This was the first time this year I was running in less than a T-shirt and leggings!
The partner of one of the runners, who wasn't running herself, was so kind as to take my jumper at the start, so I would have it again at the finish. And then we went off! There was no chip reader at the start, so even though we had race numbers (with chip), starting at the back was still a disadvantage. I suppose it only makes things easier for the organisation.
I started a bit fast, but caught myself within tens of meters, I didn't want to exhaust myself in the beginning, and I settled into a pace I thought I could maintain.
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| We are off! |
We started on a very wide path, heading for an exit, but then making a U-turn and heading back in. That means you could see the runners come the other way, and get an idea of what was going on at the front. And shout encouragements at fellow club members.
Soon after that switchback we turned into a much narrower path. Overtaking there was a bit more of an issue. But we would do three laps of this park, and the field would certainly thin out.
The weather was nice and I was feeling good and the kilometres ticked away. And when I came past the start for the third time, I knew that there weren't any women within reach in front of me, nor were there behind me that still had a reasonable chance of overtaking me. So in a way, I could relax. But I did try to keep my speed up.
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| Almost at the finish |
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| Even almoster |
When I had finished I shouted at a few more Harriers, but between the second last and the last finishing (there weren’t many of us) I went to get my jumper. And a Welsh cake. Nia Meleri had baked them as it was St David’s day!
After the race we tried a club picture, and several of us then went to race headquarters for a cup of tea. And then we went home again. And the results came in quite quickly! That is the advantage of chip timing.
I was happy with my result! 7.85 km in 33:55. And 24th woman.
There seems to be a lot of trouble with authorities this season. This race should have been in Wrexham, but the council seems to have torpedoed that. It seems the Harriers also have issues with their usual Borders League location, for reasons of the council. And the next fixture later this month seems to be having similar problems, and the venue for that race has therefore not been announced yet. I hope it’ll be somewhere not too far away!
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