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

2 Mile Joy Day Race - May 2024 - Sommieres

Not for the first time, Jayasalini decided to mix things up on the 2 Mile Race and give it a bit of a twist. Back in France after living and working in Denmark for a while, she took over race duties in Sommieres from regular organiser Unnatishil (busy working on his 100k event in June) and measured a course alongside the river, mostly shaded by towering plane trees. The twist was that we all had to estimate our finish time, run without a watch, and see who could finish as close to our prediction as possible.

Having run 2 x 1 mile intervals at a brisk pace the day before in around 6.45 each, I reckoned at race pace I could do around 13 minutes. In the end I factored in the miles still being in my legs from that 2-hour session and went for 13:13.

From the start, I went off stupidly fast, all the excitement of a joy day race plus the absence of any other guys in racing form (they all had niggles or residual tiredness of some kind or other) combining to leave me way out front on my own, running at something close to my 1k race pace! Soon I settled down, with Mena my nearest challenger and Ashcharjya and Rasmivan not far behind her. Both of those guys have knee issues and are only occasional runners now, so it was great to see them near the front of a race. Like old times!

The course was 3 repetitions of an out-and-back strip by the river, the shady section on one side then the open walkway down to the town bridge on the other. with each rep I felt myself losing pace, but that wasn't a surprise as I knew I had overcooked the start. My mind felt pretty blank, one of the joys of short races from my point of view, and all I was really aware of was the rhythm of my breathing, the towering planes overhead, the struggle back up a slope from the turnaround under the bridge and the rising feeling of exhaustion and being "on the limit" of my running. It seemed to on a long time, and when Mridanga gave my finish time of 14.48 I knew the course as a little, er, generous. Nobody was short-changed on the distance, that's for sure.

So although I was a clear first-over-the-line, the real result wasn't known until later in the day. Then it became clear that I was 2nd boy, with a margin of error of 1.45, behind Rasmivan. So I was in the fruit, despite the long course and the uncoventional theme of the race. This will live in the memory as one of those unique Joy Day races. Then again, they are all pretty special.

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