Paul and Andy's race from Mallards Pike. A new route this year which sadly has a lot more vehicle track - but at least the ankle breaking bit right before the end is now gone.
Started front 1/3 again and went steady as ankle untaped (it stops the calf hurting) and didn't want to turn it on a stone right at the start. Result was getting held up through the trees on the far side, and being stuck in a traffic jam for the whole mile of so of single track uphill - if it was just 1 person I could pass, but when it's 5 in a row options are very limited. Got them all by running through a bog the moment it widened slightly by the top. Estimated I lost about 2 mins in the traffic - was going at same pace as Cory and he finished about 2 mins in front of me so kind of agrees.
Caught and passed Paul at the top, and as calf feeling ok pushed quite a bit more on second half. Felt like I was struggling - not sure if lost a bit of speed or was just going faster than I thought. Lost 3 places on descent - looking after ankle - but gained one back at the bottom. Lots of people caught up along the muddy section, and I had to stop for a bit to work out where to go at the water bit. Picked up speed after Gerry to make sure I was comfortably ahead at the end.
Run went better than I expected. And should have been top 20 without the hold ups. Thinking as I went around - the reason I always do relatively badly on this race is probably linked to all the uphill being single track and slow, and most of the down being wide - and there's always a load of arses who block the path and don't let faster people past...
HRM given bollocks reading for the first k. Not sure what the problem is as it can read it ok when it wants but just won't for the first part of any activity, even if it was reading properly for another activity just minutes beforehand...
https://www.strava.com/activities/1306111348
A great starry sky over Newport once home. The new street lamps are making a big difference.