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| Here he comes |
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| Looking happy at the half way point |
After picking up my race number and timing chip at Ovingham Middle School I prepared myself for a good race in the early evening heat.
Lots of fluid onboard - check.
Nicely warmed up - check
Stretched - check
Timing chip - how does this work ? Ah, attach to laces, ok. That seems to be sticking up in the air, tuck it in, thats better, sure? - More later.
The start is about a mile from Ovingham, up the hill to Ovington. As I love the downhill dash from the start I got nice and near the front. Quite a crush , but as the hooter sounded away we went down the steep hill. A glance a the watch said 5 min. 30 pace. Pull it back and control breathing. 6.10/ 6.15/ 6.30 that's better, I thought as we approached the mile mark. 6mins 22 for the first mile, is that time in the bank, or too fast? Still, I felt good, although it was hot. The second mile showed my pace dropping as we took the slight incline towards Wylam. 7.11, hmn that's ok, but can I pick it up? 7.28 as we took the short, sharp climb into the village. A smile for Muriel (with the camera) at the crossroads as we came into my home village. Round Stephenson's Terrace and onto the track for the return to Ovingham via the Country Park.
At this point I had been passed by a Morpeth Runner,Richard Sill, who had asked my age category. When I told him V 65, he replied, ah good, " I'm V60". I said that I would follow him round as he started to get away from me.
Mile marker 4 passed with my watch showing 7.35, push Peter, said I to myself. 7.48 at 5 miles and my target of 44 mins was not looking good. But, was that Richard Sill just ahead? With the 6 mile marker in sight I picked up the pace to go past him and the marker in 7.22 mins. Line in sight and a final effort to finish in 45.10, not a bad time in these conditions, particularly as I had seen two runners collapse from heat exhaustion in that last mile.
In the old days, like last week, it would have taken an hour to get results before the prizegiving could take place. Now it is almost instant and while I was eating my pie and pea supper fellow Tynedale Harrier, Paul Tait came up to me and said that I wasn't in the top three places. " Really", said I, "I thought I had done ok". A glance at the results showed 2nd placed Ian Richardson of North Shields Poly had done 44.18. Fair enough, but the 3rd place had finished in 50 minutes.
"Well there are only two prizes, anyway" said Paul.
" Fair enough " I replied.
Looking at the results today, I am not listed, but as all the other 600 runners managed to get their electronic chips to work I have only myself to blame for the failure of mine - look at the image below and tell me what I did wrong, please.
As if that is not bad enough, the results seem to show Ian Richardson as 1st V65, that means I should/could have been second. B.....r!
So, is the chip under my laces?
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