Wednesday 5 May 2010

9th place in Waterloo 15 k Trail Race

MERSEYSIDE'S BIGGEST TRAIL RACE
9th place out of 459 Runners
Just one week and a day after the London Marathon I lined up for the Waterloo 15 k trail race.

I've run this race 14 times over the years and this was my first top 10 placing!
I hurt like hell from the start till the end, I used every mental and positive training skill I know to keep myself in the Red zone of the rev counter all the way round! It felt like a 5K effort for all of the 15K
Setting off from the playing fields I got into a good group, using them to shelter from the strong blustery wind. We then headed across rough dirt tracks before a lap round the Army riffle range!
The group slowly split up and I found myself leading Dave Edwards of the Liverpool Running Club. Slowly we pulled back runners in front of us.
As we came out of the army camp and made our way back to the farmers fields I forced the pace for all I was worth but Dave stuck with me and with 400m to go he took the lead and sprinted away from me [I'd beaten Dave by 3 mins in the Liverpool half, so maybe my legs have not fully recovered just yet], I looked back to see team mate Chris Dunn closing in fast on me and I had to leg it for all I was worth to save my 9th place [ and almost crapped my pants in the process!].
Very tough race, but good result.

NEW PODCAST FROM BRITAINS AWESOME 'MARATHON TALK'

4 comments:

Scott McMurtrey said...

Strong showing! Glad the pants didn't have to work extra duty there at the end. :)

Samurai Running said...

Great effort Rick. You are surely becoming a Mater's elite. But save the adult daipers until the 80~90 age group!

Thomas said...

"so maybe my legs have not fully recovered just yet"

Well duh!

That's quite some effort so soon after the marathon. Congratulations! You're flying, but make sure you don't overdo it and get injured.

Ewen said...

Rick, your powers of recovery are those of someone half your age... well, at least as good as young Scott Brown ;) 57:16 is motoring for a 15k trail race! Congrats on the top-ten. Maybe avoid Branflakes and prunes for brekky next time.