So here we are back at it - first proper road race this year was the Mid Cheshire 5K - starved of competition runners came from all over the place - there was even a top runner from Devon and the overall winner on the night was from Morpeth. And what a high standard - 27 runners managed to break 15 minutes. Unlike normal events where everybody runs together here we set off at intervals so it was difficult to get an idea of how the race is unfolding. I was happy to see one of my rivals, who'd set off before me, come into view in the final stretch and I crept up on him and surged past. (He didn't stay to congratulate me!) Here I am sprinting for the line to finish in my best time for a while of 20:44 just 8 seconds behind the age group winner in my category. Woo, hoo!
Just like buses, after waiting for hours (months in this case) one run comes along and another arrives shortly afterwards. This was the Moel y Parc fell race four days later. My personal route is shown here and it looks like a pleasant loop on hilly terrain - it took me 55 minutes and was recorded as just over 8K. To my surprise I finished in second place! I was aware that something had gone wrong when, to the north of Moel y Parc, I came across other runners wandering around not knowing where they should be going. I decided to contour anti-clockwise round the mountain and got back on track. What should have happened however was that the runners should have returned from the summit on more or less the same route in reverse and completed the recommended route of 5K. These things happen more frequently than you might think - runners, me included, tend to be like sheep and follow the one in front even when it looks like they're going wrong.
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