Another year, another rocket. This time though there was another difference. Since the pandemic there have been changes in the route, and again this year there was another change - it was completely different! No longer would it be a net downhill race, but instead it'd be one that goes downhill steadily for the first half and then back up in the second half with what they say is around 30 metres of elevation gain. I entered this one thinking that maybe it's the last time I do it in favour of sticking to parkruns, but the advantage here is that it's race conditions, and it now counts on Power of 10, so will appear in RunBritain rankings.

I sat in my car until 09:10, to keep warm for as long as possible. I saw a rat in the car park at this time. Then when crossing the park to the event village I saw an area cordoned off by several police officers - there was a forensics team in white onesies combing the area. Later I found out this was due to an attack that had taken place there.

I collected my number and then waited for the start, trying to keep warm. It wasn’t as bad as it has been sometimes in previous years, but the wind was cold on top of that hill. I decided the best option was to wait on the road at the bottom of the hill, near the start where it wasn't quite as windy. It felt like there weren't as many people about for this race. Maybe it's the impact of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, or maybe it was just the start area was bigger so it looked like there was less people when there wasn't.

In terms of pace I didn't really have a plan as I no longer knew this course. My 2019 pace of 5:44/mi was guaranteed to not be possible. However, if I could average somewhere around 06:10/mi I'd be happy with that. For the first stretch it went west, slightly up hill and into the wind before the downhill stretch started. This didn’t feel too bad at all really, as you’d expect, but I didn’t want to push too hard so held back considerably. If I stuck around 06:00/mi then for the second half up hill I could afford to slow down if I needed to.

In years past, this downhill section has led all the way to the MK Dons stadium with a couple of bumps along the way. This year it turned east instead, and along a different dual carriagewat until around 2.5K in when you cross over onto the Red Way, and go under the road. Shortly after that, this is where the uphill section of the route begins. It wasn't too bad really, not as steep as the elevation chart suggested it might be, but I knew that 2.5K of uphill running was going to drag on, and would eventually get to me.

It wasn’t long after this when the steepest part of it hits and is a little windy with a couple of sharp turns. I started to walk for this bit until I was at the top of the steepest part and then got running again. I started to run/walk for the remainder of this until the uphill stretch to the finish line which was hidden behind the corner of a hill.

I then sprinted across the finish line in 19:38, and had a small cup of water and a pain au chocolate before heading back to my car and driving home. I’d finished 30th out of 597 runners, but had still missed my goal. My hope was that now I knew the area, tomorrow's race would go a little better - though my legs would need to recover from today first…