"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Christmas Trip 5k Virtual Race - December 25th, 2020

Christmas Day saw us down on the Portway before sunrise, warming up for a 5k. After 12 races round Horizon 38 Business Park we were all more than ready to try a different course! Lots of people do speedwork on the wide, flat pavements of the Portway but usually the heavy traffic puts me off. No problem on Christmas morning though - not a vehicle in sight.

We parked at the roman remains and jogged to the start which Suswara had worked out was 2.5k from the bottom of Bridge Valley Road. I hadn't trained or tapered for this one but I had a feeling I was in good shape from the 2-milers and might be able to run sub 19. Of course I only talked about running sub 20 in our pre race chat but I had set my watch to a speed of 6.06 and I was secretly hoping to keep that up.

I went off too fast - as always - but soon settled down with the watch on 6.04 for average pace. It was great to race somewhere different - as the meanders of the riverside course unwound beneath my feet and I concentrated on keeping up the testing but steady pace, the first rays of the sun touched the Suspension Bridge above us and lit up its structure in glorious amber hues. The sun didn't touch the depths of the Avon Gorge where we were running though and at one point I had to dodge some ice.

Suswara's measurement proved spot on and I was able to turn around the pelican crossing sign at Bridge Valley Road, looking up at Brunel's bridge for a moment before turning my back on it and starting the hard run back towards Shirehampton. The pace was slipping and I was on an average of 6.06, pretty much bang on 19 minutes 5k pace, so any dying off at the end would mean missing that target. I told myself I wasn't bothered as I'd already nipped under 19 minutes a couple of times in 2020 but then another voice told me I was bothered and I needed to throw everything at it. A painful effort brought the number on the watch down to 6.05 which I managed to keep up until the finish, where a breathless look at my lap times through steamed-up glasses told me I had done 18:54 which was one second better than my time in the spring.

That felt like a great result as I had had to run lots of intervals, lose a few pounds and taper for the race to run the 18.55 and now I had done it with a big race effort and much less preparation. Feels like progress.

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