Day 2 was in another large park in Rome – this time Villa Pamphilj , the weather a little warmer and this time slightly longer courses, planned as a middle distance race. As we had split start times, whilst Holly was out I enjoyed a coffee, a pastry and a dose of autumn sun in the park, again listening to the friendly commentary. Soon after Hol was back I wandered up to the start and stretched in the sunshine perusing a map they had on show in the prestart.
Being just over 5km I decided I should run flat out – ‘parkrun’ style and see what happened. I flowed through the controls well not making any mistakes but did find my technique was starting to fall apart at the end, tired with a few controls to go I found I was not planning ahead and had to make a conscious effort to stay in touch with the map and keep the gas on, particularly on the ups.
I was pleased with my result but I was still a long way off the pace – need to do some training!