The pre-race meal plan had Kenny and I agreed that he would trail blaze the first third of the race to get some time in the bag and then as I (in theory stronger on the the hill) would take us up the hill then we'd be every man for himself.
On the start line I met Jon Jones, Simon Spears, all the running fource guys (Paul, Kenny, Dave) and it was a great buzz to be there on the start line with thousands of lesser runners behind us and to know so many on the elite.
Great race plan except from the off hundreds of idiots crashed past us and it was hard work to settle into a decent pace and I nudged Ken along in the 1st km to get us under 4mins to the 1st marker. Actually the marker was off and we'd already done a km back at 3:44! I dropped off to 3:55 then 3:57 and Ken had by this time a good 20 seconds on me. That was fine as I could see him and Dave had traded places with us a few times. By the hill I was feeling ok and tried to close the gap, but by the top Ken was still 20 seconds ahead.
On the way past Roundwood school I heard my wife and kids cheering and so the lifted me a bit and they pointed out what I already knew "Ken is just infront!". My son was apparently gutted that I was behind Ken - ah, but I knew from what Ken had told me that he did not like the Nicky line section and the switch back in Rothampstead so I tried to catch him on those sections - but alas could not.
At the 9km marker he was 17 seconds in front and I decided I could beat him by more than that over one km. Kicked hard and closed the gap. With 500m to go I had to quickly decide when to go past. I took a large group wide and eased off for the final push. I wanted to go past accelerating and hard. I saw the line. We turned for home and with 200m ahead I went for it. I caught a glimpse of Ken's face and held that image as the rocket inside was finally free to cream it to the line. Just piped him home in. Some kind of record last km, in 3:44 (it was 3:28 but only 930m) so over all very chuffed with the days work.
The sponsor was Sainsbury's St. Albans rather than Waitrose Harpenden so the sixteen year old sirens with silver platers of freshly chopped fruit were down graded to a fat bald bloke with a banana and a bottle of water.
Also the massage was good, but they had installed some kind of generator next to that side of the tent so the noise was such I could not talk to the guy doing my legs and I was getting the exhaust fumes straight into my face.
Anyway, nice massage and coffee and carrot cake with Paul rounded off a top race day!
Final scores on the doors:
Gun time: 41:07
Chip time: 41:05
Position: 63rd / 2265
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