Wanted to beat 37, knew that on a good day would beat 36, and on a very good day, 35... Prep involved eating three large slices of cheesecake so wasn't expecting to be fantastic.
Lots of people there appearing to take it very seriously, so I took the Joe Gidley approach of dressing and giving the impression that I was not a good or committed runner at all to lead them into false expectations. I beat most of them.
Very bad with slower runners boxing me in for the first mile - and I was going quicker than I wanted. No idea why as they soon tailed off on the bottom. Needed some risky overtakes in the side, with concrete lumps and sawn off sign posts to jump over. Lost quite a lot of these places at the turn by Cribbs, as I, and everyone in front, carried on to the corner where the marshal was standing. Everyone behind took the race route which cut the corner. I lost about 15 places and estimate I lost around 15s too - plus whatever extra time it took to get past a load of people again.
Cleared up along the bottom, but as I had to push the descent was just trying to hold on. Hit 5k at 19:28 which was ok. Slowed a lot and struggled up the climb out from Hallen - but also quite a bit faster than I'd done before. Last overtake was on the bridge just before the finish and did well to keep going. First from Aviva - but the team was quite weak.
16th/152. Pretty happy with that for a road race, and maintained a good pace for the most part. Looks like my main aim of the season - to get better at racing (specifically for XC) is going well without much attention from me. Just need to make sure the secondary aim - mountain fitness and endurance for the OMM - doesn't fall back much.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1819440281