Well, not a bad week of racing. Three races, two first place finishes and a season's best. Boom!
Today's race was the free, timed, five kay race in the Chevin Forest Park on the hill above our house. I've thought about doing it a few times but never got around to it. It's a 10:30 start, so quite civilised, so I decided I'd do it today and make it part of my ten mile Sunday run.
So, stage one, run up the hill to the start. That's just a small matter of 486 ft of 20% gradient and about 1.8 miles as I did a bit of a loop to get there.
Quite a small event, about 12 to 15 runners today. I'm guessing all local, at least one Ilkley Harrier and an Otley AC runner Matt Pod who I know. No elbowing to the start line, indeed a reluctance for anyone to toe the line! So it was a gentle start, flat, then downhill before a steady climb then a very steep but short uphill and another uphill drag back to where we started, then repeat!
I trailed behind two younger runners to the foot of the steep hill then slowly pulled away. I ran the whole of the second lap out in front and was never really challenged and didn't have to push too hard. I finished in 19:50, quicker then I was expecting but feeling good.
I then hung in until everyone had finished. It's low key, it's free, it's run by volunteers so there is an expectation that you join in cheering the runners home. There were even homemade biscuits!
However, it was getting chilly in the forest with a cool westerly wind and the sun obscured by more low cloud. So I was grateful to set off on leg three of my ten mile run, heading off towards Bramhope for what would be 5.5 miles of meandering downhill running, dropping 656 ft from the top of the hill back into Otley.
All in all then, a grand day out. And, ten more miles takes the tally to 1,398.
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