On race day, with gale force winds blowing, it appears I had, once again, drawn the short straw when it came to the weather conditions for a 10k race! I also knew that the course was around the airfield, so extremely exposed. 

 

From the start of the race I went out fairly hard with the intent of seeing who would come with me to assess the field and, after only ¾ km, there was already a clear lead group of about 5, with myself at the front. As we reached the 1 km marker, someone came past me and took the lead. Since we were charging into a head wind, I was more than happy for him to do this and increased my pace to go with him, just sitting on his shoulder. By the time we had reached the 2km marker, we had separated ourselves from the lead group and built a decent lead. 

 

At this stage, he moved over to allow me to take the lead and I assumed that he would tuck in behind me and we would work together, taking turns at the front, however, by the time we had got to the 3km marker, he had dropped off a bit and from there on in I ran on my own, always with a lead, but never clear enough to feel comfortable. 

 

As the kilometres ticked past, I felt more and more confident that the victory would come and, although the last 2km were into a vicious headwind and particularly taxing on the legs, I crossed the line to win with a reasonably comfortable 30 second advantage. It felt harder than it should have done to race at that pace, but it was a good indicator of where I’m currently at and a great way to finish 2015!

 

 

1st Place overall – 35:37

 

Photos curtesy of http://www.joebridge.co.uk

 

The TORQ Running Team is sponsored by the following and without them, we would not be able to do what we do, thank you: