The winter is almost over and the racing season has begun. Running season is well underway with people training for spring marathons and most major UK half marathons taking place in March. The cycling season kicked off with Surrey League races at the end of Feb.
I jumped into some early season racing with a cycling E123 handicap race at Chertsey. The first race of the season is always a bit nervous for me, not knowing if I'm going to be able to hang onto the bunch and not knowing if I still have the nerves to ride at high speed in a close bunch of riders. Chertsey was no exception and the first few laps were nervous and a big crash happening quite early on didn't help the situation. After a while things calmed down a bit and as the race progressed I was getting more and more comfortable. 10 elites and first cat riders got away quite quickly and with nobody willing to ride hard to chase them we were left to ride for the minor places. With 3 laps to go I saw a couple of strong riders attack and I jumped onto their wheel but the bunch didn't give us too much time and we all gave up fairly quickly. The sprint was uneventful and I was pretty spent from my previous effort and ended up safely at the back of the main bunch. I was happy with that for the first race and lucky to have avoided the crash.
The weekend after I went along with one of my teammates, Jim to Ramsgate for the annual pre-London Marathon warm up race - the Thanet 20. My running has not been going too well recently and I hadn't run that far for a long time so I knew that I was in for some serious suffering. And suffer I did. The first 13 miles were actually not too bad with no wind and quite good running temperature, but after 14 miles I didn't have much left in the tank and was just happy getting to the finish line. I ended up in 15th place in 2:12:24. The best thing about the race was a big fry up breakfast we had at a local cafe - even I was quite satisfied.
I took a couple of easy days after the race and lined up on Saturday for another running race - this time a 10M at Battersea Park. The Battersea Park races are always some of my favourite with a nice flat course and a low-key atmosphere. At first I seemed to be going quite well with 5:55 miles, but it seems that the 20-miler took a lot out of me and 6 days recovery wasn't quite enough as after 4 miles I completely run out of stem and was reduced to jogging back to the finish. Finish time 1:02:14, 9th place and missed out on the trophies. I hope I can recover enough for the Hastings Half Marathon on the 15th March.
