Two Rivers Presteigne

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I managed to  find the Presteigne Pacers 2 Rivers Race this year, having left it too late last year and missed the start. You just park and register at the leisure centre and then walk up the short distance to the folly car park. I blame last year’s fiasco on the sat nav. I lined up with the 46 runners at the start with a good proportion of Croft runners. It was a little bit chilly but luckily the torrential rain managed to hold off until the majority of the runners had finished.
It was a really nice route, starting and finishing in the woods with a few farm tracks along the way. The river crossings were deeper than I expected but still below knee height (the photo taken of the second river crossing the next day shows we wouldn’t have been able to cross if the race had been 24 hours later)
Thanks to Mike and the Croft hill training I did manage to get past a couple of runners going up some of the hills although some did get past me again on the level stretches.
Croft had some fantastic results with Jordan coming in first place in a time of 58.34, closely followed by Andrew Davies in third place in 1.00.54, Glyn Williams in fourth (1.01.51), and Gary Pearson in sixth (1.04.20). They took the male team prize. Other Croft results were Mick Ligema, 7th (1.06.15), Gary Gunner 15th (1.10.52), Ashley Robinson, 18th (1.12.34). I came in 29th place in 1.21.10 which won me some chocolates as the FV35 winner – great to take home a prize to share with the children. Sue Powell took a wrong turn and ended up doing at least a mile further than everyone else but thankfully was shown the right way. However she managed to channel her anger into running power and had a time of 1.33.37, 38th place which took the FV50 prize.
Unfortunately on the results list I have there is no time for Tom but I know he finished before me. He had an interesting time on his final fast descent in the woods down a narrow gully, a deer ran into him! Luckily both managed to carry on running and neither was hurt (Tom is in fact still suffering from the encounter – Guy).
This race was really good and nearby so thanks to the Pacers for all their hard work. It was just a shame it wasn’t a little better supported.

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