summer series 18/08

david thomson · summer series 18/08

first off wasnt even sure id do this as my legs mainly my calves were really tight after doing more than i was supposed to on the track on saturday. on my way back from injury and in general i take a while to fully recover from fast training/races.............
anyway warmed up carefully and decided to start and ease back and use it for training if i felt bad.
weird lining up and having none of the likes of bloomfield, prout or joyce there to race against. not many seemed keen to start at the front. felt ok straight away and didnt feel my calves for the entire race. lead briefly through the first few corners , the start had been altered due to a locked gate and this meant a normal downhill start wasnt there making it a bit harder overall. after a little bit the race took shape and i tucked in behind the leader ian anthony didnt feel great at that pace so let him slip away to a 5 metre lead, up the first hill i kept that gap , knowing from a previous race i shold be stronger than him on the hills. then up the second hill i closed till i was almost on his shoulder but i felt quite tired and wasnt climbing as well as i normally do. over the top he began to pull away and i knew it wasnt capable of hanging on. i could hear anthony came of thrift green behind and decided to race for second , sounded like i kept a good distance to third all the way round to the 3rd climb , then over the top of the 4th hill i died and i heard him finaly catchig up then drawing level . i tried to up the pace but simply couldnt , i tried again several times as he pulled away but settled for 3rd. 24 seconds outside my course best not too bad considering hopefully ill be back in shape for the crown to crown in a few weeks.
as i was warming down a young lad came storming in looked round and saw it was a benfleet lad , james formosa ? and also just behind i recognised his mum but didnt know who she was at the time (not wearing club colours) . the last one of these i did back in may i lapped the 2 of them , no where near doing that this time , well done to both of them.

http://www.phoenixstriders.org.uk/Docs/Summer%20Series%202009%204.html
1st Male, 1, 292, 00:18:29,Ian ,Anthony SeniorM

1st Female, 15, 439, 00:23:25,Denise ,Warner SeniorF

1st Junior, 11, 415, 00:22:30,Adam ,Houchell JuniorM

3, 273, 00:19:44,David ,Thomson , , M,SeniorM

37, 282, 00:26:31,James ,Formosa , , M,JuniorM

45, 286, 00:26:57,Sarah ,Formosa , , F,SeniorF

hotspurs

Hey David

Enjoyed reading your race report and well done, that was really tough, taking into account the heat, the bizarre start and your injury! You had a really positive run by the sounds of things.

We saw you at the start and I thought you may not of known who on earth we were if I had come over to say hi with Jim (James when he's naughty!) (club vest still missing in action) but we were willing you on from the start!

Jim was running on the condition that he took it easy as he ran his socks off at the Crown to Crown the week before, that was the only reason I came in so close behind him, I normally trail him by at least 2 or 3 minutes.

Even though there were less competitors this time, I was still elbowed into stinging nettles and bushes, but no excuses, I gave that all I had and hoped to finish with a time that started with a 2 and a 6 and was chuffed to find 26.57!

On to the next!

Sarah