Crosspool Crawl 2019

Race date: Wednesday, 10 July 2019
(I forgot to Strava this so I don't know how my splits were.)
The Crosspool Crawl is a four-mile-ish road and trail race, held on a July evening and run in aid of a local junior school. It's a friendly event with a couple of hundred runners and lots of handwritten encouraging signs. It starts at the Three Merry Lads pub, and ends in a field behind The Sportsman.
This was the second year I've done it, so you'd think I'd have twigged to wear road shoes rather than trail. Ah well.
There's not a lot to tell really. I cycled up the hill from work, and arrived with just time to say hello to about a hundred Steel City Striders and eat a banana, before we were herded into the road and off. I was worrying about the pain in my heel that's been bugging me for days and forgot to start my watch. The course undulates along Redmires Road, up hills that are steep enough to try and run fast. So I set off and tried to run them fast (running a weirdly short-feeling stride length, and regretting my soft-soled trail shoes), and succeeded in overtaking a fair few runners. The route then circles around the top reservoir and cuts on to the trail that runs back down the South side of the reservoirs. It's not technical, but it is a bit rocky and the flies are an absolute plague. I was tired by this point. I'd gone out at parkrun pace. However, I decided to try to keep up the speed as I chased down the Strider in front. I never caught him, but I didn't lose ground. I did catch another Strider, though. The route then drops left down Soughley Lane and then right back on to trail. "Less than a mile," cried a marshal as someone overtook me. I was really flagging, but I could hear someone behind and I didn't want to get caught. We finally turned left onto the playing field, within sight of the finish line. Suddenly the runner I'd overtaken by the reservoirs came hurtling past me and left me for dead. I heard another runner behind me and managed to drag up a burst of speed to beat him over the line. A child handed me a glass of water and I sank to the ground, knackered.
After a while, I trudged back to the Three Merry Lads, where a kind soul handed me a cookie.
It's a hard race this, because the course feels fast. Worth a visit, but take some DEET.

The race was won by Martin Harvey in a course record of 23:45.7. First female (12th overall) was Caroline Brock, in 26:58.6. I was 62nd of 182, in 32:00.1.