Snitterfield Snipe Six - 28 June 2009...

Distance: 5.8 miles

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
00:35:05

Finishing Position: 2
Number of finishers: 71
Putting me in the top: 2.81%

This was supposed to be a six mile road race, though it turns out it was officially measured at 5.81mi or something around there – which seems a bit of an odd distance! Though in reality it doesn't really matter since the course was so bloomin' hilly it was nigh-on impossible to get anywhere near PB pace.

The race started at a very fast pace travelling downhill – I had in my mind that I wanted to try and stick with pre-race favourite Jack Mee for as long as possible, though another young ginger haired runner (who I've since found out is named Daniel Web) was pushing the pace hard at the start, so hard in fact that I was virtually sprinting to stay with him and Jack.

No sooner had we reached the bottom of the hill and covered about quarter of a mile, was Daniel looking over his shoulder gasping for breath and looking to see where the rest of the field was. Race leader Jack Mee ran a couple of meters ahead and I ran alongside Daniel, who seemed to be paying for his early sprint already. Daniel kept checking over his shoulder and gasping for breath, it honestly seemed like this guy had come from nowhere to sprint for as long as possible without actually knowing how far the race was.

We reached the 1mi marker, Jack was opening up a gap ahead of me, and 3rd placed Daniel was fast falling back – I didn't have the legs to increase the pace and the gap to 1st place just seemed to grow and grow, as did the gap behind me – I was soon in no-mans land with no other runners visible in both directions.

I tried to push on for the remainder of the course, but it just wasn't easy when running alone, and the hills made life incredibly hard. I finished feeling shattered, and still lacking the energy that my legs had before Edinburgh Marathon.