Wetherby 10k.

     The weather appeared to be  just about perfect for the Wetherby 10k this afternoon, well that was until the race started.     The race got underway and we made our way slightly down hill for the first kilometre, there was quite a large group of us at the front and I was somewhere in the middle of it. I don't think I have ever done a race were there has been so many runners bunched up at the front of a race. Just after the first kilometre the race goes off road and then the group started to stretch out a little. As we returned back onto the tarmac at around the three kilometre mark small groups had started to form and up  ahead was Andrew Grant from Harrogate, Mike Jefferies, and another lad. Following on behind was myself and Mike Burrett of Leeds who is an old rival that I have been in battle with many of times. Burrett is some way off his best as he is returning from injury and with myself trying to get going again after having my annual time out it looked like we would have to make the best of what form we had.  Burrett was setting the pace for us and working into the wind,  I found myself swaying between struggling and just about hanging on and to be honest I thought to myself it's only going to get worse as my stamina will let me down, but I didn't want to slip any further down the field than the fifth place I was in so I was going to have to dig deep into my reserves. Around the six kilomete mark we were caught by a couple of runners from behind but with a quick increase in pace from Burrett we soon dispatched them. Then not long after that we were caught again this time by Newton from Akworth road runners which made it a fight for fourth,  fifth and sixth and low and behold almost straight away the lad that was in third place had pulled up for some reason or another. Around the eight kilometre mark Newton started to pull away taking third place with him, up head I could see Grant from Harrogate was leading with Jefferies behind him. Approaching the nine kilometre mark I thought I might as well give it everything I had left in the tank and see what happens, I managed to stop the gap growing between myself and Newton and luckily Burrett was struggling and I managed to open up a small gap on him and came home in fourth place in a time of 34 mins 32 seconds.

    I guesstimated that I would just about get round in thirty five minutes so not too bad in the end time wise. Given another couple of weeks I reckon I could wipe well over a minute off my time but unfortunately the race was today and not in a few weeks time. Certainly an excellent day of racing and I certainly ran much harder than I had planned. The weather returned to being perfect again once the race had finished for some reason. And as usual the race was we'll organised and marshaled and with the runners village to relax in after the race what more could a runner ask for.