Second race of the Summer series

The second RR10 at Broadlands in Romsey looked potentially to be taking place under a very mean looking dark set of clouds, quite a contrast to the steamy heat of last week, I can’t keep up with this weather, it could be anything next week.

Some fortuitous parking in Romsey meant that Richard was in the bay next to Jim! Sensibly Phil, David, Doug and Richard waited out the rain which was sweeping over and Phil having emerged unscathed from some dodgy public toilets in Romsey met the others at the very scenic (and flat) Broadlands Park in Romsey.

The rain defying Peter was in attendance, as was Dave Seymour and Andrew Cable making it (again) a very respectable showing of 6 runners + 2 supporters. So noticeable in fact that someone remarked to me after the race that she was surprised that Wessex was still going!

With the weather looking better an early reccy of the 2 lap course indicated that it was indeed flat! Terrain was a mixture of some uneven wet tufty grass to start with, but then mostly some gravel and road and lots more even grass. The recent weather hadn’t created mud thankfully. But overall there was a bit of a challenge ahead especially when transitioning from grass to gravel then to grass again multiple times.

Race wise all acquitted themselves very well on the 4 and half mile route with some excellent times all round, no doubt glad to be running in less humid conditions than last week. In finishing order Jim and Phil were close together up top with Dave, David, Andy and Doug all running really well. Looking on the RR10 results site, which has been updated very promptly, we placed 23rd out of 38th for race 2 – progress!

As always a great buzz about the place with everyone audibly happy to be back running these mid week races, attendance was roughly the same as last week with 331 runners. Special mention to the excellent lemon drizzle and banana cake provided and to the rain for waiting until we left to then hammer it down.

Bring on race 3 down by the river Hamble and the return, if I remember correctly, of a few tricky hills!