Saturday, December 01, 2007

Bridge of Allan time trial

A new running shop has opened in Bridge of Allan, quite close to where I live, and one of the things they arrange is a Saturday morning time trial. I decided to go along this morning and see what it was like - part of my thinking was that it would get my run over with early in the day, without having to think too much about it. I turned up at the shop just before 9am, jogged the half mile down to the start, and got ready to go. The course is a fairly flat 3 and a half miles (3.54 miles according to my GPS). This morning there was quite a strong wind which was into our faces on the way out and probably behind us on the way back, but as usual I didn't really notice it when it was in my favour.

About 20 runners turned up. After being reminded by the organiser that it was a time trial and not a race (yeah right), we set off. I was in second place in the early stages, but was finding it quite hard and a couple of people came past me after a mile or so. I was through 2 miles in 12.58, just under 6.30 pace, then speeded up a bit as we got the benefit of the wind on the way back in. I caught one of the guys in front with about half a mile to go - he had stopped and was walking - and finished 3rd in 22.43. That worked out at an average pace of 6.25 - not a bad workout for a Saturday morning. I'll try and go back, and would recommend it to others as a worthwhile training session. Maybe we can get a few from the club to go along? After all it is a time trial, not a race :)

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