Letting it slip

I turned up to the second midweek league event fired up for another fun race, and even the constant rain wasn't going to dampen my spirits. Well, OK, any of you that have seen me before a race know that I'm generally not at my most cheerful at that point, and I often seem to have odd aches and pains that never surface at any other time - why is that? But I was looking forward to the next race of the league.

Until 5 minutes before the race it looked like Shaftesbury Barnet hadn't turned up. I thought perhaps they'd decided that the competition was beneath them after last time. But just before the start they all appeared - maybe they'd all been sheltering under the same tree. During the first kilometre, on the cycleway we know best from the winter 5k series, pretty much all I could see was the entire Shaftesbury Barnet men's team ahead of me - it looked like they had about 7 of the first 10 runners. So of course I couldn't see them for long.

I knew the course was mainly flat for about 4k, then uphill for about 4k, and downhill for the last 2k (OK, there's a course profile on our MWL page, but any information more complicated would have overloaded my brain). As I mentioned for the last race, I don't mind hills - the only problem with a hill so long is guessing how much effort to put into getting up it. Too fast and you're too tired to really benefit from coming down the other side. Too little and you've wasted too much time (and it's a measured 10k, after all, so there's still an outside chance of getting a PB!). I don't think I got it too wrong - certainly nobody caught me on the way up, and I very much enjoyed the sensation of speed on the way down. And it was only when I saw the clock at the end that I could definitely rule out getting my best time (even though I missed it by more than 20 seconds).

The big sports hall was a perfect HQ, and I can't comment on the showers or changing rooms because I've never used them (too close to home). The sandwiches and snacks were OK, but fell into second place behind Bishops Stortford. Not that food reviews generally form part of a race review...

So what was going on score-wise? Pretty much the same as in the last race, only more polarised. Our fantastic ladies were even more fantastic, with Tash joining in the fun this time as part of a 1-2-3-5 NHRR finish for the first ladies' team (it has to be said that it's a good job she did - without her the ladies' race would have been neck-and-neck with the improved Spartans ladies' team). But our average men were even more average, again finishing 3rd in the men's event and losing even more ground to Spartans (let's ignore Shaftesbury Barnet; we know they're going to wipe the floor with us!).

MEN
1 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 129 7
2 Fairlands Valley Spartans 373 6
3 North Herts Road Runners 484 5
4 Harlow Running Club 652 4
5 Herts Phoenix 684 3
6 Bishops Stortford 815 2
7 Broxbourne Runners 1191 1

LADIES
1 North Herts Road Runners 44 7
2 Fairlands Valley Spartans 60 6
3 Bishops Stortford 143 5
4 Harlow Running Club 153 4
5 Broxbourne Runners 248 3
6 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 325 2
7 Herts Phoenix 356 1

Why is this? Well, it looks like FVS got more runners out this time and we were a bit weaker. It really is as simple as that (but comments welcome!). So overall it's another 12 points each for each of us, but we've now been overtaken on 'goal difference'.

Pos OVERALL Score Points
1 Fairlands Valley Spartans 933 24
2 North Herts Road Runners 1022 24
3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 1203 18
4 Harlow Running Club 1489 16
5 Bishops Stortford 1634 15
6 Broxbourne Runners 2394 9
7 Herts Phoenix 2377 6

But hey - it's so close that it can all change around again next time. PLEASE all come to the next race!