City Mile Dash - 4.57

I’ve said it before but I reckon this race despite being the shortest we run is one of the hardest of the year. Into the city for the lunchtime City Mile Dash (1600,) event and after a good warm up with teammate Crossy lad I meet the others before heading to the start line. Plenty of nerves for this one before the gun goes and its one almighty scramble out the gates. A couple of real sharp left and right turns for the first 300m that makes it tough to go past anyone and I’m puffing pretty hard already as I tuck in behind Skippy Heyden. Think to myself I’ll be doing well if I can hang on, but do so all the way to the turnaround point at approx 1k. I see all the lead guys on the way back (but miss Tommy H who I believe was winning the race at this point?) I got stuck behind a lad on the turn who seemed to walk at one point that saw the band stretch between Heyden and I, Was hurting like hell  but tried to keep it ticking over as I also noticed we had a slight tail wind to help us home. Had grand visions of kicking it down for the final 250m but in truth I looked like I was carrying that grand piano as I came over the line. That said I did stop the clock in 4.57 that I was stoked with (some 4 seconds faster than last year) averaging roughly about 3 min/ks for the run.

My joy was heightened then we I had regained all senses and found that with Special Q (Quentin) first place, Chairman Tommy H (3^rd) and Crossy Lad (8^th) we were a cert to take out the winning team event as well. Then to cap a real good day news filtered through that the HuRTS girls with Jac, Laura, Elle and Renee took out the females.

Many thanks to ‘Q’, Crossy and ‘H’ for helping me out, Tom in particular who I know wasn’t keen to run but one thing you can rely on is that he never lets you down and proved to be more than an adequate replacement for the Italian Stallion Durante who missed his first ever Mile run due to him moving to Singapore in February.

Some great runs by everybody and I suppose it’s tough to overlook Quentin’s who took it out but the Timmy Run of the Day goes to Jac ‘Corky’ O’Connor who run a stormer pushing  Laura all the way and knocking over 20 seconds from her time 12 months back.

 

A good few beers in the marquee tent at the end whilst all the presentations took place before heading up to Bungalow 8 for the nights social.  Nice team streamed in throughout the evening after work as things started to go hazy as they do when Taffy James rocks up. Ventured up to the Irish bar P.Js for final drinks that destroyed me and meant once again Saturday morning was going to be the Mother of all Battles to get through.

 

Winning Team for the 2nd straight year, Crossy, Timmy, Tom and 'Q'

The 'A Team' girls didn't let us down either - cleaning up thanks to Renee, Jac, Elle and Laura.

The calm before the storm on the start line.

Run of the Day, Jac 'Corky' O'Connor.

Presentation time with Crossy Lad and Quentin. Proud to say HuRTS teams have won every year since its inception. Long may it continue.

Onto the social and you can always guarantee a good night with these two - Tommy & Taffy Boy.

And Laura won't miss out too often.

Cardiff's best dressed man - Taffy, at least he's standing.

It starts so well, but ends oh so messy.

Team Times

Cheers