Wenlock Olympics 7 Mile Road Race - 2022
I won the race back in 2019 which was the last time it was held and so I've had the trophy for 3 years. I didn't really want to run the 2022 edition due to lack of general fitness, having done no hard sessions for best part of 9 months and my back issue was so bad in the week leading up to the race I was often hunched over. The only reason for doing the race was that I needed to hand the trophy back and it was a 130 mile round trip so I may as well enter if I could physically get round. I was expecting a bit of a car crash though and so it proved. The weather was about as hot as I've run anywhere (other than perhaps the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara!) and when the race finished it was 26 degrees in the shade. As the race was in the direct sun it will of course have felt much hotter. Even in normal circumstances a course PB would have been out of the question. I set off fairly conservatively but I just felt sluggish and had no pace - perhaps not unsurprising having