Hare and Hounds Winner

According to my marathon schedule I needed to run Wednesday or Thursday. Today is Friday and I ran neither. It's the Hare and Hounds 5 mile time trial at work. Time to redeem myself. I want to do a sub 38 minute run for the 5 mile route. A quick bit of math tells me this is 4:45 / km. (23:30 5k I believe)

I turn up at the start and it is freezing cold (-3C?) and snowing heavily. Martin(The timer) is not there. Dafyd, the hare decides to start. Deidre a first timer shows up. She's due to start 50 seconds ahead of me. Eventually Martin and arrives and the race is properly started.

I set off and the snow gets heavier. Despite it being the centre of London, the snow settles. I am trying to run 4:45 min/km to set a new PB. The Garmin is all over the place like a drunken sailor. On the outwardbound journey just short of Vauxhall Bridge I catch Deidre. But she clearly has spirit. She holds me all the way to the mini-hill over Lambeth bridge where she gradually slides away. I also dispatch Dafyd at this point.

I keep pushing with the Garmin oscillating around the 4:45 mark. On the final push towards the South side of Blackfriars Bridge the Snow becomes very heavy. The Garmin is still at or around 4:45min/km. Looks like I will do it.

On the final sprint, the Snow has reached a level where it is slippy. I still sprint, but am careful. As I cross the line knowing that I have won the handicap. I look at the distance and it is 5.18km. I had run 4:44, and the time was 38:30. My previous best was 38:15. Not a PB, but jolly good.

I clap the other runners home. I then jog back to the office with Deidre.

Later in the day, the email comes out. There were 6 runners in the event, but I had won. Not just the handicap, the overall race. Usually the winner does around 33 minutes. It's near Christmas, and cold so lots of people had dropped out. But that's not the point. I had won (maybe by default). But I had won!. I was the fastest runner!

Later an end of year mail came out for the running club. The top 3 Hare and Hounders this year. In 2nd and 3rd place with 5 runs, Charlie and Mark. The winner myself with 8 runs and one Race Director. I may not be fast, but I am persistent!

5.18 miles 38:30 Snowy, Cold. WINNER!