Relay

I hate this race. I’ve been dreading it for days.

I’ve managed to run the same sort of time each year but it’s never a pleasant run.

Our team organiser has to drop out sick this morning so we roped in G - top man. He joined D - who only started running a year ago but who is a bit of a natural and N who is a proper Athlete - amateur international triathlete! And me.

I worked out the pace that I wanted to hit but that’s largely academic. I followed the usual plan of running the first leg and setting off way too fast with the proper runners and then trying to hang on as much as possible. It worked and I managed 6:09 for the 1.77km course which is 1 second off 2007’s PB.

Anyone under 6:00 gets listed on the All-time hall of fame. I ought to be miffed at missing this again but there’s a big difference between 6:09 and 5:59 and I resigned myself, years ago, to never achieving it. I really don’t think I could have gone faster.

D at 6:48 did think that he could have gone faster but it’s hard to know how fast to pace it when it’s your first race. N’s 6:55 was really good well under the female Hall of Fame time of 7:30 - especially impressive as she’s more of a distance runner. And stand-in G knocked a big 20 seconds off his previous best. Star.

Unfortunately, a stupid research student meant that I wasn’t the fastest footballer but I did beat the others - including 3 guys from the team that beat us in the final - a bit of revenge. And, once again, I was the fastest person wearing a t-shirt and football socks (rather than a running vest). You have to look for these things.

Spent the afternoon coughing in the traditional manner.

Last year: https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2435890456391845563