June 2021,
Coming off a good few months of long races decided to do a few short ones in the lead up to the Crawley 6hr. Especially as I wanted a way to cope with the loss of Norman and his funeral that was coming up on Monday 21st June.
Dorney 10k – First up on the 12th June and very humid and hot having also cut the grass I knew this would be tough. I need to do it in particular as I was struggling with solo training and needed some focus so I went with my friend Trevor. I felt off the ball and it became a battle to just race and close the gap to someone a little further up at the start point in the wave. Managed to catch up on the second lap, we were both struggling and pushed to the finish. I finished overall a few seconds faster and not my fastest in 37:57 which is still very respectable.
Southern Athletics League (SAL) – 21st June – First time in a while I have managed to see the Belgrave team thanks to Covid and very few races. This was a short one for me but the longest of any of the events and post vaccine the day before I ended up running one of my faster ones. The race had Lauren, Jane and myself running in and I felt a little pressure being on the “A” string. Fortunately being experienced on the “track” front managed to pick up pace in the last few laps to get into 2nd place and be the first scorer for the club finishing in 10:36.
Chase the Sun Battersea 10k – 24th June – A hot humid evening post funeral it felt like we nearly didn’t make due to traffic. We got there with 30 mins to spare and time to get sorted before the race waves… I saw Naomi Mitchell who was in great shape despite missing out on the Olympics from the trials back in April. It honestly helped not to feel the pressure and it was great to feel the buzz around the park. Although it was incredibly busy and hard to weave around in the park with some tight bends. The evening was humid and clammy so I was happy to cross the line in 2nd place in 37:31.
