Wedgnock Hills & Spills Winter Series - Race 4 - 20 February 2010...

Distance: 10k (6.2 miles)

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
00:36:15

Finishing Position: 1
Number of finishers: 73
Putting me in the top: 1.36%

For the final race of the series I knew that the series title was well within grasp, and that a top 11 place would guarantee it. Of course though I wanted to do the best that I could, and if it all possible win the race; this would of course be dependant on the opposition that turned up. After collecting my race number and getting ready, I'd noticed Toby Spencer was warming up ready to race. Now Toby is a very slight guy, quite short and a true featherweight in build - exactly what you need to be a quick runner. Toby was one of the unfortunate two runners who got lost in the first race, and had also been finishing well ahead of me in recent Birmingham cross country league races - in fact I think he was well over a minute ahead of me at a Birmingham league XC race a week or two before this race. I lined up at the start, determined to push hard and do my best, but not expecting much.

We were underway at a strong but comfortable pace and soon a group of three of us had started to break away; myself and Toby leading with another guy tucked in behind us. The ground still partially covered with snow, we trudged on, steadily breaking away from the 3rd placed runner. Through a wooded section we went and onto the road where Toby started to break away.

One thing that did perhaps play into my hands was Toby's choice of footwear, he was wearing road shoes - whilst they made very little difference for the majority of the course (and no doubt gave him the advantage on the road sections), it seemed to give me a slight edge on the descents - I could push on with (reasonable) confidence where I suspect Toby would've noticed the slippery mud underfoot a little more than I.

So the descents are where I pushed on as best I could, and was able to close up much of the gap that Toby had opened up. I could beat him on descents, he was that bit quicker on the flat, and next came the long climb up Pig Lane (no matter how slowly you run up this hill it hurts, it even hurts if you walk it), on this climb I was well and truly dropped. I couldn't, for love nor money, stay with Toby and his lean lightweight frame – all I could think about was the excess weight I had to heave up this hill and he scampered away, unburdened, opening more and more of a gap.

Again I pushed as hard as I could to close the gap wherever possible, over muddy sections and descents, and I did. We ran together along a tarmac, but slightly downhill section, seemingly matched for pace. Soon we were back on the flat and Toby began to open up the gap again. We entered a field and I found my bearing, knowing that we had one field to run across, with a slight descent, followed by a reasonably long, but undoubtedly hard climb, and once we were at the top of that climb, it was perhaps 800m on the flat before the finish.

By this point I'd all but given up any hope of catching Toby, but pushed on across the field - just before the short descent I spotted my father taking race photos. I pushed hard down the descent to close the gap to a matter of metres before receiving words of encouragement from Dad. Toby almost went the wrong way, but between my gasps for breath I was able to shout "LEFT!"... which he duly heard and was back on course.

At the foot of what felt like Everest, I moved up onto his shoulder and drew level. I knew in my mind I wouldn't stand a chance of outsprinting him so if I was going to try anything it had to be on the hill. The paced increased and we matched each other step for step, though my legs were burning, I was gone... hanging in as best I could I was ready to admit defeat, when a miracle seemed to happen - Toby dropped back! He was still pushing, he hadn't fallen, or stopped, but he just seemed to be going backwards relative to me. What a tremendous lift it gave me... I continued to push, harder and harder, reaching the top of the hill grunting and hurting more than ever, I just needed to keep going. My pace must've been pedestrian but I fought the urges to stop and tackled the snow covered flat section as best I could. I wasn't sure what lead (if any) I had, but reaching the final stretch of road I was able to glance back, I had maybe 20-30m lead, which was undoubtedly sufficient, but it felt like 2-3m. A final "give it everything you can" burst saw me finish first. Absolutely delighted and ecstatic to have even challenged Toby, let alone beat him.

The victory was inevitably sufficient to give me the series title, which now sits proudly on display in the lounge.