The weather forecast wasn’t good for this, but as so often happens, we got lucky on Saturday morning and found ourselves in near-perfect conditions for running. Having said that, there was a fair bit of mud around and certain areas of the route were very slippery which made for perhaps a slower pace on those sections.
Alan Renville picked me up (along with a Harmeny runner) and we arrived in plenty of time. Foxlake was very cold, and the lake looked not a bit inviting. I’d run here a couple of times before on a 13km (8.10 miles) course, but the route this time was different, so I was keen to see how times would compare. The Cani-cross runners (or Woodbines, as I call them – what do you call a dog with no legs? Woodbine, as you need to take it outside for a drag. Boom.) were set off around 5 minutes ahead of us and then we were off.
There was a lot of variety on the route, which kept it interesting, and before we knew we were making our way back towards Foxlake. I was in a small group, with another small group ahead of me, and I thought if I could overtake the group ahead, I’d get a top 10 place. It didn’t happen. In fact, I lost a couple of places in the run in. Must keep working on that endurance. However, I was almost 4 minutes quicker than the last time I ran there, in challenging conditions, so a decent day out. Alan Renville wasn’t far behind and sneaked in under the hour.
The results were a bit all over the place at first, and I’m still not sure if they’re correct, as a couple of disqualified runners seem still to be showing and they had the Cani-cross results in here too before adjusting their times, but here they are anyway: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=57945
Foxlake and the John Muir Way is a great location for a run so there are a few more races in the series for you to check it out!
Mike Lynch