Training Log Archive: AC

City of London race. Second time I have done this race and had an absolute blast again. Really excellent map and courses and organisation. And the weather was great to boot! I was much better prepared this year and have the tricky area around teh Barbican figured out although they threw in some good twists this year and some of teh optimal route choices were on teh ground level through there. I didn't recognise this early enough and took some of teh high ruotes to a couple fo controls when the low route was faster. Still, I made no major errors, took a couple of poor route choices, and only missed one control when Iooked behind the wrong rock wall (30 secs). Felt quite strong through the run until about the last km when I started to struggle quite a bit and basically jogged it home. Very pleased with run afterwards and came 11th. Winner did 48.35, a good 7 mins ahead of me. But in terms of relative ranking, I was only 3 mins behind Martin Ward and Cavin Clegg who were 1 and 2 last year, 6 mins in front. So getting closer!

I did make a few errors in route choice and map reading. These cost me about 3.30 all up, mostly 20 secs but with two route choices (to #2 and #26) costing around 45-60 secs each. The tricky Barbican leg (#18) prob cost around 20 secs by going up and over rather staying on the ground. Still, didn't see that choice until after the event! The slowdown at the end also cost 1.30 - 2 mins all up. I could have run maybe 50-51. Can't see myself doing 48 unless i get a lot fitter and faster! Will be back for next year.

Warm-up jog.

C • Sounds like fun 2