Back for more of this....it was going to be my third running of this route, having done it twice in the 18/19 series. It had been very wet on the Friday, but Saturday was forecast to be showery. Mud had to be expected.
Avoiding the RWC2019 Final that kicked off at 09:00 between England and South Africa, I drove east to Dunbar and was directed along a forest track to a grassy field where some deep wheel ruts were already forming as cars parked up. I hoped there wouldn't be any stuck vehicles after the race. I trotted back along the track to the Foxlake centre to collect my number before returning to the car to tog up. I did have my raingear, but what precipitation there was, was periodic and light. I decided to run in shorts & t-shirt.
Back to the centre and a quick pee, feeling sorry for the massive queue of females. At the event briefing the audio was shocking and I don't think anyone heard much. I just about gleaned there was a slight change in the route where it recrosses the river at Dunbar but there would be no change to distance.
As expected, I saw the usual suspects - Nigel's cousin Jez, Ian Burdett whom I had spoken to at Athelstaneford in May and of course Roger Peppiette. We had a brief chat about his recent trip to California before being ushered to the start line.
My race strategy was to match Roger. Off we went along the deep wet grass around the lake into the woods, at quite a canter. I was blowing hard but found myself losing contact with Roger through the tricky wee copse and down to the track. Once back on the flat, I upped the pace and made sure he was two places ahead.
Passing East Links, there was a Llama at the fence feeling threatened by us and it kept lunging at the wire. A bit mad. Over the bridge and onto the tarmac, I overtook the guy in front and slowly gained on Roger until I was alongside him as we turned right onto the grass to go round the caravan park. I'm not sure if this was his trigger to put the foot down, or I had shot my load, but the gap between us immediately started to open out, and before long the 2nd placed female had nipped past me into the gap.
On the other side of the bridge, it was very wet and muddy and I was soon being overtaken by 2 or 3 blokes. There was now at least 4 between me and Roger, and he seemed to be so steady. We were now approaching the sand dunes which I despise and my pace slowed allowing more people through.
Anyway, the rest of the race continued in that vein, me being overtaken every km as if I was on a travelator going the wrong direction. For the last km, I managed to hold it together and stopped the watch on 57minutes. Suprisingly that was the fastest I had run that route, even in the slop. Roger was at least 2mins ahead of me.
00:57:12 23/242
