Rob's Running Blog

Dennis The Menace 2013 Race Report – 47ish including hurdling Gnasher…

Did some pyramids at SRC on Monday and was still feeling a bit heavy legged this morning, but today was the day of the Dennis the Menace race which I haven’t managed to run since 2009, a couple of months after my mum died.

After work etc I set off the the Pack Horse Pub and bumped into some familiar SRC faces (it’s funny how the last time I did this race I didn’t know a soul but now have lots of people I know to talk to), saw Tony and Glen, Rob and some other people, then headed to the start with another SRC runner. Did a quick jog through the woods to try to warm up and felt quite worn out already, so just hung around for the start, we moved back and suddenly the horn went. The rest of the runners seemed to recede into the distance immediately, and I was left wondering not whether I would finish last, but how long they would be waiting for me to finish!

I didn’t feel a temptation to try to keep up with them, just ran my own race, another runner fell behind me and there were 2 running together in front, I just settled in and enjoyed some banter with the marshals about it going dark before I could finish and how I didn’t know I had entered an elite race! I was so far behind at one point some dog walkers must have thought everyone was passed them as I had to jump over their dog – I will call it Gnasher in keeping with the theme, at least it didn’t bite me! As we got to the hill through the woods towards the end of lap one I overtook the 2 runners who gave me some encouragement, for some reason I felt much stronger on the uphills than elsewhere, and found a new gear on the second lap, I slowly started to reel a few more people in, though I had my sights on Rob’s yellow SRC shirt up ahead!

Going round the football field I overtook two more people and then along the canal reeled someone one, eventually moving up another gear and deciding that although I was hurting badly at this point, I was not going to give in. Up the hill again and I was getting closer to Rob, I powered up the hill and then started winding Rob in, pretty much sprinting at this point, went past Glen who gave me some cheerish to the finish, and I could see the finish and realised I was going to run out of trail before I caught Rob. I’d forgotten to start the Garmin until a few strides into the race and forgot to stop it, but it said 47 something, considering that’s only 5 minutes slower than my 41:50 of 4 years ago, it wasn’t bad, if there had been another 100 metres I might even have caught Rob.

Probably the lowest position I’ve ever finished in a race but enjoyed it and loved the banter with the marshals, just ran my own race and enjoyed the lovely evening weather, it was very warmish out there once I got going.
Thanks to all the marshals and the SRC runners for the support, encouragement, and banter 😀