Was expecting a better run than last year by virtue of not having an ankle injury - but yesterday afternoon and evening didn't go well and stomach was also pretty rough this morning. Warm up implied the run was going to be a disaster but fortunately the toilet queue disappeared 5 mins before the start.
Overall ran fairly well paced, not going too hard at the start, and allowing for the fact that I've got a cold so running overall hasn't been fantastic since before Night Sugar race - did feel pretty hard though. Apart from swapping places a few times, maintained my place from the dip by Kerne Bridge all the way to the finish.
Was fortunate in where I caught the canicross runners (passed the first one after 12 mins - or 27 mins for them. Note only 2 canicross runners were faster than me today, and the slowest runners overall were canicross not standard...) as it wasn't in any very tight single track, and they were pretty good at getting out of the way.
Ankle turned a bit in the boggy section of top of Leys Hill, which is were Jonathan Carter passed for the last time, and he and the fastest lady got away a bit due to my poor acceleration out from kissing gate heading back to the crossroads. Pace on flat/gentle down tarmac/hard surfaces was too slow compared to any road runners so was aware was getting caught.
Having recceed the steep descent option beforehand, noted the (1m) cliff was the easy bit but the flattish path beforehand was ankle breaking - had planned to take the wimps route again, but there were some slow dogs so had to go direct. Was also stuck behind a dog for the first section before the road before they gave way. Gather the lady didn't like being pulled down the "cliff". Had a stationary canicross "runner" blocking the way out of woods into fields but once past able to open up and close some of the gap I lost on the descent.
13th in the end (of 270 or so that run, and beat 26 or the 28 canicross). Clearly the feeling ill and poor prep didn't hinder me too much - but maybe should have been top 10 on a good day. Nice to beat Henry for once.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1983999350/overv...