Las Vegas Institute of Sport 10 - 4 July

[SteveD]

Back to Swindon for a go at the 10 mile version of the 25 course I missed the turn on last time. The 10 course is basically flat with a good start and finish close together. The conditions were warm with a fair southerly breeze which I'm told suits the course.

Reached 32 mph down the slip road onto the dual carriageway and settled down to around 26 mph to the turn, it being slightly harder going than last time. There must be something about this bit of road but I managed to make a bit of a hash of the turn again. The 10 course has a short extra leg at the turn not included in the 25 and I missed the correct exit from the first roundabout. Following a shout from an initally unseen marshall I went round the roundabout a second time this time getting the right exit to turn at the second roundabout ok. All very frustrating but managed to get my head together once back on the dual carriageway for the return and just went as hard as I could averaging around 28 mph most of the time. The result of all this was a season's best 22:42 (the course is just that fast) but left wondering what might have been.

I was off fairly early in a field of 180 so I didn't wait around for many results - the fastest when I left was 19:55! I think this course is as fast as the Andover course and certainly more honest without the long down hill start - only the turn slows it down a bit. The main problem is that it's a long way to go for a 10!