"Alsager 5"

It took a few days to recover from the disappointing performance in the Northern XC champs but by Wednesday I was back into the swing again, and yesterday had my year on year attempt at not getting too much slower in Alsager!

The Alsager 5 is regarded as one of the fastest five milers in the country (won in 23.4!)but with vicious and blustery headwinds in miles one and four it wasn't ever going to be my fastest effort. I ended up running 34.20 which whilst being seventy seconds slower than last year (around 230 metres back on 2010 with an average of 6.52 miling) I was still pleased with this as I beat a couple of runners who have been easily ahead of me in this season's cross country including my old adversary Neil Fowler from MMU. I was also third placed vet for the club which gained us 7th team in the vet's event! The other positive was that I was able to hold my form to keep the speed up right to the end and with a last 200m sprint took at least half a dozen places, finishing 217th out of 998.

The photos were taken at miles 1.5, 3 and 4.5. I managed to hold off number 144, just!

Weekly mileage 24. Annual mileage 161. Races 4