Time/Position: 1.22.10 (1st from 32)
A rare overall race win for me: they come around every 6 or 7 years! Admittedly, it was a small field this year for obvious reasons - but I think I prefer the word 'exclusive'. Not the best time, nearly five minutes down on my PB and exactly identical to my Four Villages time in January. But, like that race, this is not the quickest course - with around 300m of climbing in its journey round all the pretty lanes linking the villages of Gellifor, Llanynys and Llandyrnog. It was cold and frosty, with tendrils of mist in the bottom of the vale when we set off from Llandyrnog. A young lad broke clear, along with Richard Eccles. After the youngster dropped away, the race evolved into a great battle between the two veterans. We were more or less neck and neck the whole way. I pulled ahead on the drag up to Groes Efa, but then fell behind on the flatter sections that form a scenic balcony above the vale. Most of the time, however, we ran at exactly the same pace - and it felt great to be in a proper race after the dozens of cancellations and virtual events which have wrecked this running year. Towards the end, there's a long drag up Foel Goch - at least a mile up a very narrow road, climbing the whole way - and I made a move on this, before emptying the tank on the flat run in past the Kinmel Arms and back to the village. One of my very rare overall wins came at the Vale of Clwyd 10k back in 2013, but I'd never done the half marathon before: a lovely route.
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