If you read the reviews about a race, and every single person says “it’s a challenging course”, then be prepared for a tough race!!  That’s what I told myself as I finally found my way to the start of the Toad Hall 10K at Whitchurch Hill on Sunday.  (I also told myself that maybe it was time to invest in a Satnav after spending an extra 30 minutes getting lost in country lanes looking for it!)  There were about 4 very long steep hills which reduced everybody to a snail’s pace or walking, and a large proportion was run on narrow woodland trails.  Even though I made up huge amounts of time on the downhills and flats, including a PB km split time, I finished in 00:51:00.  I was disappointed with my time initially, even though I’d given it my all – then today I compared finish times on RunBritain rankings with other entrants who have raced the same local events as me, and it seems as though at least an extra 4-5 minutes on your normal road race times is the norm on this course!!
I am counting it as valuable strength training for my next road race…and it was still lots of fun!!

position: 50/199
gender category (female): 6/75
age category (female open): 5/39

Alex Portwine