Santa Race

I felt quite fit playing football on Wednesday but the hip was playing up pretty badly afterwards, particularly on Thursday morning, to the extent that I thought I had made no progress whatsoever. By Thursday afternoon I thought I might just about be able to run with the club in the evening, but icy conditions ended up ruling it out, so I stayed at home and completed the remaining jogging routes in Wii Fit Plus. On Friday afternoon the knot around the left IT band turned out not to have diminished at all, and I also had my feet checked, the diagnosis being that I needed at least a token amount of support so I shouldn't run in the Lunar Trainer at all, and the Nimbus were probably a better bet for longer runs, despite the weight. Fortunately, my Newton Motus were given the green light as well.

Sunday was the day of the club's Christmas handicap race. The route had been changed to avoid crossing Canniesburn Road, and as the side streets at home had a light covering of snow, I thought my best bet would be my trail shoes (Inov-8 Roclite 285) which have been fine on snowy streets in the past. On arriving at the start of the course, however, it turned out that the roads around Westerton had all been cleared and the only snow was on the pavements. The only other shoes I had with me were the Nimbus and I wasn't about to change into them for a road race, so I had to stick with the Inov-8 and hope for the best.

The handicapping was evidently based on old times as I was off scratch. None of my fellow scratch men had turned up, so I was isolated in last place for the first mile, making up no ground at all on Marco in front. It was quite warm in the Santa suit but I managed to keep the hood up and the beard on for the entire race. The Inov-8s were clattering noisily on the road but I was just about able to stay on the forefoot in them, wishing all the time I had brought the Newtons instead. About halfway round I started to make up the odd place, and finally got to run on snow on the pavement along Switchback Road, although it was easier to run on the road when there was a gap in the traffic. This was only for a couple of hundred metres before we were back onto a side street. The route took us back onto Switchback Road for another couple of hundred metres through the snow, where my off-road shoes finally gave me a tiny advantage, before we turned onto Westerton Road. I started to make up quite a few places on this final stretch and dragged myself up to the middle of the field by the finish. My time of 17:48 was the fastest senior time of the day, and I was pleased to manage a sub-6 average in a Santa suit and completely inappropriate running shoes. The route came out as 3.00 miles on the Forerunner but SportTracks later recalculated it as 2.99, giving me a 5:57/mile average. Minor left hip tightness soon wore off, still some problems with the right hamstring. Pace splits: 5:58, 6:05, 5:47. Weekly total: 12 miles.