Maiden Castle Loop

For the third race in a row the Maiden Newton contingent numbered five runners, although not the same five as the previous two.  Unlike last year when it was so wet that Richard Orme was marshalling in a wet suit the weather was fine if a little hot as we gathered for the 7pm start.

Those in the know started at the front and went off like rockets to avoid the bottleneck in the narrow path shortly after the start.  Having spotted a couple of potential rivals I had another reason to start at an idiotic pace with the idea that I'd get a bit of a head start.  However as we reached the road and turned right towards the Castle I became aware of a female Poole runner breathing down my neck and consequently went up the first hill rather faster than I otherwise would have done.  I managed to shake her off by galloping madly down the uneven field on the other side with scant regard for ankles.  I was also spurred on by Dave Carnell, needed to put enough distance between us so that I couldn't hear him whining............

A sharp left turn at the bottom and onto the road for a nice easy spell, and as I neared the turn back up to the Castle I could see Martin ahead labouring up the hill.  He didn't seem very far ahead and for one foolish moment I actually thought I might be able to catch him, although by the time I'd laboured up same hill I didn't see him again until the finish!!  My female rival was back on my heels but from the sound of her breathing she was working even harder than me so once I reached the ramparts of the castle I stepped up the pace and managed to pass a couple of male runners and open up a bit of a gap on her.  I heard Charlie shouting encouragement as we passed on the ramparts and managed a brief wave, no breath for calling back as I concentrated on keeping the pace and resisted the temptation to look back.

The final descent off the castle was a welcome sight and I practiced my new downhill running technique as advised by my personal coach, turned right at the bottom onto the track and risked a quick glance back.  I was going pretty much flat out along this easy stretch so unless my rival was doing 100m pace there was no way she was going to make up the ground she had lost. (My Garmin later confirmed that I ran mile 6 at 6.20 pace which is better than my usual 5k pace!!).

All that remained was to retrace my steps along the road and back up the path to the school and over my dead body was any other woman passing me at that late stage in the race!  Martin was somewhat taken aback to see me arriving at the finish quite so soon after him (he had finished an excellent 9th overall and first MV50).  Hopefully he'll be the one glancing nervously over his shoulder in future races!!

We saw Dave over the line and then jogged back down to give Charlie some heavy encouragement as she closed the gap on Andy in a very strong finish...but couldn't quite beat him to the line as he finished 7 seconds ahead of her.  Another enjoyable race with good results all round, next up the 25th anniversary Haytor Heller next Saturday evening.