Met Emma O and Paul Sugden before the start doing their first Parkrun, then Rich and Lindsey Hinsley showed up, having apparently been still in bed 15 minutes before the start.
As usual I was looking at who the fast boys were likely to be, and there were a few racing snakes in evidence, but once we set off I found myself in the first 2 or 3, and the guy that was leading was perhaps going a bit slower than I thought I could manage so before long I found myself in front. Very odd...
Having never run this course fast I wasn't really sure on pacing, and being out on my own I had even less idea, so it doesn't surprise me to see I slowed down on each mile - however looking at km splits it's more interesting. They were:
3:31 (exuberance at the start)
3:50 (first time up the hill)
3:32 (surprisingly close to km 1)
3:49 (up the hill again and quicker than km 2, although also including the downhill bit again)
3:51 (down then up, but also when I was passed by the winner and eased back)
I was eventually passed by a guy who looked and sounded much more comfortable than me and rather than dig in and race I let him go a bit (in the end he was only 10 seconds ahead at the end) and started to think about tomorrow's Etape du Dales.
So - second place and a reasonable WAVA score of 76%, which on a course that seems to be a minute or so slower than the John Carr means a PB could be on the cards next Wednesday. We'll see...
PS Replacing my HR battery seems to have done the trick for now - no comedy spikes today.
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