After a week off from running - and dealing with the media lol - it was back to action today at the Avenham 5k.
This is a race that I won last year, but the quicker turnaround - with the marathon being a fortnight later this time - meant that I was never going to be quite in shape for this one.
But it felt good to be back out there and running and trying to let my feet do the talking!
The race got underway at 11am, and the sun blessed us with an appearance, making for nice conditions for a run.
As the gun went off (or Shane Cliffe shouted "right go on then!" to be a bit more precise haha, a young lad in shall we say 'dubious' running gear went flying off like the clappers. The rest of us had a good laugh and left him to it, knowing full well that we would catch up to him and pass by the minute we got out of the park...
...which we did, and from there on I took the race on from the front and stretched the field out a bit. I knew that I would tire as the race went on and wouldn't have my usual sprint finish, so tried to gain as much of an advantage early doors as I could.
We went through the 1 mile mark in a steady 5:15 pace, roughly what I had targeted running, so I was happy enough at this point. By now only Gary Pennington of Preston Harriers had come away with me and then there was a decent sized gap opening up from Gethin Butler (Preston) and a Blackburn runner in third and fourth place.
Half way through mile 2 it became increasingly apparent that Gary was now sitting on my shoulder and ready to make a move, but with the undulations and hills through this section of the race, the pace slowed down and I maintained the lead as we passed through the second mile marker. The pace had dropped through that mile though (5:30 for the mile) and mile legs were now starting to feel heavy.
With about a mile to go Gary made his move, passing me and moving a few seconds ahead before I managed to react, I tried to keep him in range, but knew that if it came down to a sprint finish then I wouldn't have much of one in me today! As it was, I eased off as we re-entered the park and decided to settle for securing second place, mile 3 was a 5:26 mile and Gethin had managed to close up the gap again, but not enough.
I went through the finish line clocking 16:21, the exact same time that I produced at the race last year when I won, but off two weeks less recovery, so overall a decent enough performance which blew a few of the cobwebs away. A good point to start from as I look to ease back into full training over the next week or so.
