Magic Roundabout – Guy

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It seems the Magic Roundabout is held either in howling gales, or in fine weather, and we were blessed with the latter this year, even if the ground was very wet in places after recent heavy rain. A record field (224 finishers) meant a delayed start, as latecomers were caught in traffic jams up the narrow access road. We were once again entertained by the race director, mounted on top of the trig point, before he set us off to race down an uneven grassy slope (and I nearly had to leap-frog Martin who’d lost a shoe in the first patch of mud), round the back of the Begwins and then a sharpish turn onto a stony track, where one female runner came unstuck and twisted her ankle, then a climb back up to the finish area and water station, before embarking on the final loop of the figure of 8, which is mostly long grassy slopes up and down (and seemingly more of the up), until the final descent to the finish. As usual a Davies won (this time an Austin), in 36.48. Gary P ran a strong race, first Croft runner home, 17th in 43 minutes. Sam (20th) and Glyn (21st) battled it out just 50 and 51 seconds behind. Martin, regretting his lost shoe, finished 34th in 45.43, 40 seconds ahead of Pat (41st). A tiring Ashley R (78th, 52.05) was not going to be beaten, and held me off, 6 seconds behind. Jo fought hard, with the memory of Cape Wrath in her legs, finishing 100th (54.28), with Frank struggling with a calf injury coming in 107th (55.08) a short way in front of Tom (114th, 56.28). A very fine spread of cakes, with tea and coffee, was very welcome after an arduous 10k in the sun.

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