A crisp autumn day in the New Forest saw 28 Winchester Running Club runners taking part in the sold-out third event in the Hampshire Road Race league. Many of us arrived a tad too early to the New Forest Showground, nursing memories of last year and sitting for hours in a Lyndhurst traffic jam; no such problem this time so we had time to chat before warming up.
Runners before a race always talk up the reasons why they are going to go slowly and I was no exception, being just a week out from a marathon and promising to take it easy. Following a few inaudible words from the race director though, we started and I couldn’t help myself, running as fast as I could through the puddles, trail and tarmac of this delightful 10-mile circuit.
The early mile posts seemed quite a lot further than my Garmin reckoned, even allowing for a bit of weaving round potholes and early congestion. Just me, I thought, until I overheard another runner complaining; I called out that they seemed pessimistic to me too. They mysteriously caught up later.
The temperature was perfect, there was no rain, the puddles were manageable and the ford dry; but we did suffer some headwind, particularly on the most open section across the forest; but who can complain when there are ponies?
First in for the club was John Reed in 7th place overall, with a PB time of 00:58:06, followed by David Gaskell just a few seconds behind (00:58:09), who also picked up the VM40 award. Then the awards kept on coming: Erin Willmers first female (1:02:40), Cathy Kinnear first V55 (01:17:19); Lorraine Hedworth first VF70; Steve Goodwin first VM70 (01:19:38).
The club also picked up the Mike Ryan Team Trophy, for the fastest team of 6 runners including at least two females. Congratulations to John Reed, David Gaskell, Tom Hansen, James Moore, Erin Willmers and Vanessa Monteleone.
It was also a good day for 10 mile PBs. Congratulations to John Reed, Dan Hoare (01:03:50), Paul Horler (01:07:02), Jonny Herron (01:18:48), and (ahem) myself at 01:11:54). Also congrats to Ross Smith (1:09:57), and Brian Klaas who finished just ahead of me (01:11:53), both on their debut 10 mile race.