As in June I waited for the official results to be published before posting my report.
My best time at Rowheath was that race in June where I returned a time of 19:42, 31 seconds outside my PB set at Cannon Hill parkrun. I've spoken to several people who agreed that the Rowheath course is around 30 seconds slower than Cannon Hill.
I forgot that the starter doesn't hang around here - presumably he doesn't want to hold traffic up too long - and I didn't give the Garmin sufficient time to locate satellites and ended up not managing to start it, so once again I had no time or pace information.
A pal from my old club Sparkhill Harriers lined up next to me at the start. Paul was usually faster than me in cross country races, but I don't recall running with him in any road events. I figured I'd do my best to track him, and see how it went.
About 400 meters in I was having to work really hard to maintain something like 13th position, a couple of place behind Paul, but around the corner and approaching the first hill Paul was going backwards and I passed him fairly easily despite losing places to others. I later learned that he'd fallen right out the back and subsequently pulled up.
Over the rest of the first lap I was to-ing and fro-ing and having little tussles, but winding up around 20th.
On the second lap I was feeling like I'd over-done it, and yet I was holding my own. I lost a net one place over the lap, contriving to place myself in amongst a row of Bournville Harriers, as was made clear by the locals shouting for everyone around me, though I think I did hear a little shout for me from one of the Bournville supporters, Sharon. Two of those who overtook me around this time turned out to be the first two ladies.
I was determined not to lose any more places and was delighted to be able to produce a burst of relative speed to finish but was too far from the lady in front to catch her. Entering the funnel I thought I heard the marshal shout 30, which I knew would be the seconds of my time, but while I certainly didn't think I could have managed 19:30 I hoped I'd done better than 20:30.
The results are now out, and clearly I must have misheard, as the seconds of my time are not thirty, but thirteen. 19:13 is faster than I could have hoped for, so I'm very happy! That's just two seconds outside my PB so if, as I suggested, Cannon Hill is 30 seconds faster, I should look forward to a new PB by 28 seconds tomorrow! 18:43?
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