10 Nov - Run (Surrey League - Richmond - 10th)

Surrey League at Richmond Park (Petersham).

Did a lap of the course at a very easy pace for a warm up, then ran out on my own for slowly increasing strides. Warm up felt good but think I could have been a bit more focused on the strides.

The start is down hill for 3/4 of a mile and so very fast. Settled into a nice but firm pace around 15-20th and ran my own run, throttled back slightly on the uphill and then relaxed into a  nice rythm.

The final hill of the lap I inadvertantly upped the pace and felt really strong and fluid. Easily moved myself to 11th at the halfway point. Maintained a really strong pace but slowly lost ground on the group of 5 in front of me. The gap extended to about 100m and I carried on at my own pace. At the bottom of the downhill (halfway round 2nd lap) I tried to increase the pace but couldnt seem to get any distance back. I settled back into the old pace and let the hill pass by, with less than 500m to go I felt it worth having a dig, as soon as I did I made up at least 50m on 10th place. I fought hard and took 10th with 100m to go.

Overall very very pleased with the performance. Tactically I dont think I could have done much more, my decision not to go with the 5 in front either cost me a top 5 finish or prevented another 20th, I will experiment with this in the South of Thames 5 miler.

Aerobic capacity held me back and also a loss of endurance strength I think, slightly lost form towards the end but not too badly.