From a team-perspective this was a mixed event. We had our best turnout (65) to-date and everybody ran well. Despite having a few of the faster ladies absent, it was still surprising to find the NHRR ladies team coming 6/6 on the night. Royston ladies, in their home event, particularly seemed to raise their game. With the men coming their usual solid 3/6, that left us 5/6 overall on the night. As you can see from the table below, we are now likely to finish 4/6 in Div1 this year. I was hoping to at least replicate our 3rd place finish of last year, but despite consistently good turnouts and everyone doing their best, we'll probably just fall short.
Overall Placings after Race 3
The good news is that we should enjoy a 3rd consecutive season in Div1 next year. Special mention has to be made of the fact that the first 15 men finished with sub-40 min times, and that with 4/5 of our fastest men absent. Now that’s what I call strength in depth!
My own performance of 36:11 (14th man) was encouraging after a recent slump in form and indicates that a few easy training weeks have had some effect. I set off with the intention of just running a good steady race, so in this context, my performance was all the more pleasing.
