MWL3: A picnic in Welwyn

The midweek league races seem to be coming thick and fast, since they're only a fortnight apart. Keeps the excitement level up, which is good - and it really sounds like a lot of people in the club have little else on their minds! We like leagues - it's a shame we only ever take part in them at this time of year or with cross-countries in winter.

So race 3 was hosted by Herts Phoenix in Welwyn Garden City, using a course we know well from previous events by both Herts Phoenix and Garden City Runners. Plenty of car parking in Gosling sports centre, and changing and showers there too (important for me this week since we're getting the bathroom re-fitted).

No HQ as such, but since the rain held off it was fine staying on the green - more of that later!

Only a 5 mile race this time, which shouldn't feel much different from 10k but it does. You've got to go faster, for a start. I felt OK but not great, although this was probably more due to a busy day at work than my recent race exploits.

(Of course, that's nothing compared to Lindsay's trip to the race, where she turned up at full speed about 2 minutes before the start, but I'll let her tell you about that.)

Since it was a two-lap course we knew exactly what to expect the second time round, which is always useful. I was starting to flag a bit after about three and half miles, so it was lucky that James overtook me at that point to do a bit of pacing. The best part was the little sharp hill by the side of the A1, where at the bottom we were both in front of a little group of runners, but at the top were so far ahead of them they were nowhere to be seen (it's that 'strong hills' thing again). I don't know why, but for some reason Lindsay thinks the idea of me and James bounding up a hill side by side is very amusing - arms and legs all over the place, like some kind of angry octopus.

There were marshals at all the important points on the route, with only minor road crossings unmanned (and that certainly didn't bother me). Due to the lack of an HQ, Herts Phoenix came up with the excellent idea of giving out packed lunches from a gazebo on the green - a bag of sandwiches, drink, and even a bit of cake to eat at work the next day. The results, when they came out the next day, were what we've grown accustomed to, with one major difference: the ladies slipped into second place behind FVS due to some of our faster ladies being unavailable (a shame, actually, because the men improved a bit!).

So with one last race, there's a mountain to climb...

Pos
OVERALL
1 Fairlands Valley Spartans 1390 37
2 North Herts Road Runners 1525 35
3 Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 1654 27
4 Harlow Running Club 2312 23
5 Bishops Stortford 2575 23
6 Broxbourne Runners 3901 14
7 Herts Phoenix 3683 9

Of course, I'm only talking about winning the league. Stepping back a bit and looking objectively, it would take a disaster for us not to get promoted back to division 1. But it's a matter of pride, isn't it?