The Bittersweet Victory

Last month I ran (almost) a 15Km race at Hagley Hall, I both hated and enjoyed it, so I decided to run it again.

Its a local race, only 8km away from home, so I cycled there on my beaten up old Mountain Bike, the sun was shining, so why not. This is the first race organised by the Hagley Scouts and I have to say, they did a great job.

Registration was straight forward, I picked up my number and timing chip then decided to have a little warm up run. After the run I did 2 rounds of Wim Hof Breathing while I waited for the race to start.

The Course

The Course is pretty tough, with a 75 meter climb in the first 1.1km, followed by a series of fast, steep down hills through the grounds of Hagley Hall. Today it was sunny, even though we have had showers over the past few days, the course was pretty much bone dry.

The Race

The start of the race was delayed by about 10 minutes, I'm not sure why, but I got myself right up the front of the start line.

My plan was to take it easy and just keep up with the group for at least the first 3km, this went pretty well, a group of around 5 of us were toing and froing with a couple of runners slightly ahead. It seemed that I had more balls on the down hill sprints and I would pass most of the group, only to be passed again on the up hill. I was pushing as hard as I could and it was tough going! it was quite warm and at a few points I was actually feeling quite light headed! That's something I need to look into.

Nearing the end and there were only a few people in front of me! We crossed over a field and I could see the finish line in the distance, I was almost there, I was soon to find out how many people in the lead group were running the 10km race.

They all were! which meant only one thing, I was the 5km race leader!

I peeled off to the right and crossed the line, everyone was cheering and I heard my name, "Anthony Towers, first over the line for the 5km race at 18 minutes and 6 seconds"

18 minutes! I've only ever ran an 18 minute 5km once in my life and that was on a flat canal route. I went to grab my phone to sync my garmin.

3.9km, that makes more sense, I knew it couldn't have been 5km! but 1km short! that seemed odd. I started to ask people if they thought the course was short, some said yes, some said no. hmm, not good. I wandered over to the timing tent to find out what had happened, we had a look at the map and compared it to my GPS track, and there it was. 2.6km in and things went wrong, I didn't know it at the time, but a marshal on one of the turns directed us down the wrong path. Bugger.

Conclusion

I was the winner, but the winner of a 3.9km route that a few of us had taken. There was no way to figure out who ran which distance. My first win, snatched away.

Gear

Inov-8 X-Talon 200 shoes
2XU calf sleeves
Ashmei running shorts
Ashmei vest
BlueSeventy race belt
Garmin VivoActive

Nutrition

Pete Evans, Paleo Every Day - Chia Seed Pudding with nuts and berries
Vivolife perform with 500ml water

Race Report - Hagley Stag Run