A perfect evening for a run in the woods. And a large crowd because this was the 4th event in the Run>Dartford series of 5 races swelling number to over 100. It also meant a competitive field likely to be ahead of me! After some photo’s and socialising I did a quick warm up:
https://www.strava.com/activities/655683366
and then it was a slow walk down to the start line. Usual pre-run nerves particularly as the Race Director Brian called out names of those runners in the competition for their various overall age categories. My main competitor was, as expected, Graham. In my mind it became a tactical run to finish as close as possible to him. After the mad dash away steeply downhill from the start the route turned right and made a long steady climb back up before cutting back into the woods before finally dropping down to the bottom of the hill towards the stables. Each turn brought either a climb or descent as there is very little that is flat. The ground was mostly a dusty and gravel top except for a few muddy sections that had mostly dried out.
It remained a close duel with Graham as we went round the course. He had initially passed me in the first kilometer but I tracked him and we slowly picked off other runners and I never was more than 20 feet behind. I seemed to close-in mostly on the uphills and drop back when descending. The final climb back to the finish felt slow on legs that felt heavy but I was on his shoulder. We slowly made our climb up the most steep section and passed the 400m to go sign. It flattens and then undulates over that last run to the finish line. Graham pulled ahead and behind me was Hannah from DRR. I could not let her overtake me as Graham had gained a place and so I raised my pace to close the gap in front. But to no avail as he finished ahead. We spoke about how the scoring would position us overall and the possibility for it to be a draw. We waited to see.
https://www.strava.com/activities/655683364
Eventually Brian shared the result was a draw! Prior to the event we were two points apart 13 vs 15. On the night I finished 15th and Graham 13th. Our final scores were equal 28 points! My effort was not in vain to drag myself round as close as possible including the finishing line dash to hold my place. All the results published here and the next race is Wednesday 31st May 2017!
Martin A Cunningham 