Couldn't have asked for better conditions on the day - warm, sunny and not a trace on wind. When I arrived I found out that we had 4 teams (of 3) competing and that I would be running the first leg in my team. This put me with Graham Harrison, Darren Smiley & Graham Stephenson.
I knew that Graham Stephenson had been running really well and came on leaps and bounds since he joined the club so I made my race plan to stick with him as much as I could.
The race set of at a furious pace but I was able to tuck in behind Graham and stay there for the first mile or so until the course veered up the short hill in the middle of the course. I'm normally quite strong on hills and thought I might have made up some ground at this point but I didn't seem to have that extra kick on the day.
The route is only just over 2 miles, so it wasn't long before we descended the hill and headed back along the path to the start. I was still keeping up with Graham at this point and made a move to try and go past him, but he must have sensed me coming and speeded up himself.
Then before I knew it we were approaching the slight incline to the finish, and I didn't have anything left in me to try and mount a sprint finish and Graham pulled away from me and ended up finishing 9 seconds in front.
All in all I was happy with my performance, although the almost immediate soreness in my legs (which lasted for a good few days) was a telling sign of my complete lack of speed-work this year.
14:31 and 15th out of 64 runners on the first leg
