Ayr 5-mile Trail Race

24th August 2011

Route on Garmin Connect | Results
 
My third year in a row at the Ayr 5M trail race. It had been pouring with rain all afternoon, but thankfully brightened up in the evening. I arrived quite early and jogged around the first part of the course to gauge how wet and slippery it would be, although seeing as I only had one pair of shoes with me it wasn't going to help much. I was wearing Adidas Adizero Adios racing flats, so was hoping I wouldn't need any grip.

Waiting for the race to start, it became apparent that none of the fast local runners had turned up, so I was fairly sure I'd end up leading the race. With that in mind, I set off around the track at the start as fast as possible and tried to drop the field as soon as possible. I was soon running on my own with the lead bike just in front. There was a short loop on soft wet freshly mown grass, before returning back to the river path. I tried to keep pressing until the end with a view to getting under 29 minutes. I turned back into Dam Park Stadium on 28:08, and thought I had enough time and put in a strong finish. My time was 29:06 which was 10 seconds slower than last year, and 2 seconds faster than 2 years ago, so all fairly consistent. Next to finish was Chris Clarke of Glasgow Uni Hares & Hounds, who was delighted with his 2nd place!

Ayr 5-mile Trail