The Warwickshire Road Race League has a real sting in its tail with two ten milers and a half marathon to negotiate, normally all-but back to back. For whatever reason, they're more spread out this year - and a good thing it is too! The Nuneaton 10 generally sets the tone for the others, so it was good to see a reasonable group from Northbrook, but it would be even better to see a bigger group at the others. Anyway, to the race...
A lead group of three quickly got away, and I was left in an isolated fourth place fifty yards adrift. Fortunately, one of the three quickly realised that his ego was writing cheques his body couldn't cash [The first person to tell me the name of the film, in person, wins a free drink.], which gave me someone to haul in over miles two and three. From there it looked like a long, lonely run for home with Gordon Lee and Gary Payne out of reach and going well in front. I'd been talking to Gary before the race and he's done some amazing times recently, so I didn't think I could give him a race, but as we moved into the second five mile lap he was dropping away from Gordon and I seemed to be gaining on him. I was really worried about blowing up, having gone through five in 26.46 against a season's best of 26.32 and done no mileage to speak of lately, but I went with "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Just relax and chase slowly!" and got onto his shoulder at seven miles. I ran with him briefly trying to steal a rest, but the pace just didn't feel right so I pressed on and made a break in the eighth mile, from which point I was running scared all the way to the finish! If only I'd been wearing a watch I might have spotted 54.00 looming and started to sprint sooner, but I can't complain at the time, not least because, as my only official ten-mile race ever, it's a PB. The Wednesday sessions must be paying off!
I was hoping to get pictures of the other Northbrook finishers for the web-site, but injudicious parking and a brilliant run from Stuart Keen meant that he was in before I could get to my camera. How many PBs this month, Stuart? Howard Andersen followed soon after, and with Pete Austin making up a strong four-man team we were looking good for prizes. Roger Ladbury, Charles Jones and Tony French completed the Northbrook contingent, and at this point I think they deserve thanks and congratulations. They were ever present on the club's behalf through the EMPG series and this time around they made sure we closed out a six-man team for the WRRL. Well done, gentlemen!
Now on to the Kenilworth Half (get your entries in early in case it fills up) and Rugby 10 to complete another glorious WRRL team victory for Northbrook AC!!!
| Pos. | Runner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Nathan Holmes | 54.02 |
| 6 | Stuart Keen | 59.24 |
| 10 | Howard Andersen | 62.07 |
| 18 | Pete Austin | 64.31 |
| 50 | Roger Ladbury | 73.44 |
| 51 | Charles Jones | 73.56 |
| 50 | Tony French | 85.26 |
Northbrook AC was first team on the day, based on four to count, and (based on my brief look at the results) second team in the WRRL to Nuneaton.
Stuart's time is a PB and Howard was 3rd in the MV40 age category. Congratulations to both! As my first ever certified ten mile race, I suppose my time is also a PB but, as I've run faster for leg 4 of the Hilly 100, it's not really good enough to call it that...
Click the thumbnails below to see larger images. Full-size images (suitable for printing) are available from Nathan Holmes.
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