CAAC 5

Photo courtesy of Scott W, who was whizzing round the course on his new bike

It is that time of year again when Corstorphine host the CAAC 5 - 5 miles of undulating country lanes. Having marshalled the last couple of years, I thought I'd don the black and white vest and join a whole host of other CAACers for this years race. We were lucky to have a dry night having experienced some heavy showers earlier on in the day.

With an 'on your mark, set go' from Martin the field was off. I somehow got a swept along with the field and thought perhaps I'd gone off too fast with a 6:00 min first mile. My second was in 6:25...hmm, 12:25 for 2 miles (my PB round the Meadows for this distance is only 12:18!) Would I be suffering later on I wondered? Turns out, yes I would!! I tried to keep with Gillian and Derek as best I could. Gillian started to pull away and I could feel Derek starting to creep forward too. I seemed to gain on runners on the uphill sections, but failed at running fast downhill. With a mile and half to go there was one last hill, and it's safe to say my legs had turned to jelly. I tried as hard as I could to keep the pace going and was glad of the downhill section in the final stages. Thanks to a few cheers from the marshals and Susan on her bike, I made it round in a PB of 32mins. Pleased with the run, and the CAAC team spirit was great. Some great performances from the men! Not enough to scoop the team men and women's prizes away from HBT this year though...