Owls Count

A rather good Father’s Day outing - with most of the family running. The course went round the town I lived in for ten years.

I started at a good pace and after 600m realised that I was just behind my brother. I ran down the main hill with him, but he pulled away just after 2km. Through town I kept a reasonable pace, but felt as if I was struggling a bit.

Through Stour Meadows was difficult - it was a choice of single file or running through the long grass, which meant the pace was dictated by those in front. I felt strong going up hill and stayed about 50m behind my brother the whole way along the old railway.

I was glad of the water at the beginning of the Milldown, even though I was carrying my own. I was then relieved to get out of the Milldown with there being no sign of the leaders coming back the other way. During the next section of down and up I maintained a reasonable pace, but could not get any closer to my brother who was 100m ahead of me by this stage.

Coming into Tin Pot Lane I was told that it was ‘Not much further’ and ‘All downhill from here’ - both of which I knew to be true, but were really good to hear! From here it was a case of raising the pace in to the finish.

My time surprised me. I finished in 44:50 - which was a minute or so faster than I expected. Also, I felt as if I could have gone faster.
My km splits were: 4:20 - 4:00 - 4:40 - 5:48 - 4:39 - 5:54 - 4:19 - 5:08 - 3:49 - 2:11
I ran a lot more evenly than those suggest. I would guess that the 5:48 and 5:54 extra time should be in the last two kms.