I MOVE INTO SECOND OVERALL IN THE RACE SERIES

Harrock Hill race 3
[PHOTO ROB ASHWORTH]
A sudden increase in temperature and humidity came as a bit of a shock to the system after such a cool summer so far!
Just a gentle jog before the start had you dripping in sweat, so waiting at the bottom of the quarry road for the start had me thinking that a nice cool beer siting outside a pub relaxing might be a better idea than subjecting myself to running over 3 very tough climbs on such a oppressively humid night.
Anyway after the start all thoughts were put to one side as we concentrated on climbing the first climb, I reached the top with Rob Ashworth still in my sights, which had me thinking I was going alright. Once on the downhill i found myself in a group of 3, I took back one place here then another after the parbold climb ,just before reaching the old ruins of the windmill, but then on the final downhill 3 guys came flying past me as my legs bluntly refused to turn any faster, this dropped me down to 11th place at the finish, 44 secs slower than last month and feeling very tired and drained! It took me a good 5 mins before I started to recover from my efforts and I just had to slump down on the grass and let my body cool down!
Once again I managed to win my age group, 3x in a row, but more importantly I have moved up to 2nd overall in the whole race series! Marathon winning legend Rob Ashworth had a great run just missing 5th place by seconds with 35.14
Our 3rd counter was Andy Hudson in 41.06 33rd, 6 secs faster than last month, Andy Bowker made the trip over from Blackburn to finish in 51st 43.27. Vicky Harvey like me finding the heat hard going finishing in 71 st place 46.42 1.09 slower but an impressive 7 places higher than last month. Cristine Cutner overcame the humid conditions to run 3 secs faster than the june race finishing in 87th 49.30. Carole James was very pleased that for the first time she managed to run up every hill without walking, no mean feat for sure! she finished in 51.25 93rd.
Next months race on 27th Aug is the last in the series and is part of our clubs Grand Prix , so try and make it down, its very challenging but great fun.
SERIES OVERALL RESULTS
RESULTS

Sun 27th
easy run with Jon = 1.08
Sat 26th
Long run inc 4 x 10mins and 3 x 5 mins at marathon pace = 2.30
Thur 24th
12 x 400m with Rob, felt really strong after my race and gave Rob a hard time! = 55 mins
Wed 23rd
HARROCK HILL RACE
Tue 22nd
easy run over the sandhills = 38 mins
Mon 21st
long run inc 8 x hills with club, - 2.37