Sharon and I visited my parents this weekend so couldn’t go to Bushy Park for the weekly time trial (yes, we’re obsessed!) so instead chose to drive the 25 miles from their house to Hove, which is just west of Brighton, for the Brighton and Hove Time Trial (BHTT). We’ve only run the Richmond Park Time Trial a few times so this was a new time trial for us, and a thoroughly enjoyable one.

It is a multi-lap course with a few little undulations so certainly not what I would call flat. There was also a bit of a breeze today but it wasn’t too much of a problem.

As the starting gun went about 15 people raced off ahead of me. After about 200 metres there were 5 in front of me and over the next few km’s I brought that down to 3 in front. I ran hard and finished 4th overall (out of 88) with a time of 18:18 - my best 5k time since October 2007 - and with it being on a non-flat course this must put in a good stead for getting close to my PB soon at Bushy Park.

Sharon had a reasonable run and was happy not to have finished last (as if that would happen!).

After the race Sharon and I went to the cafe - which is about a 30 second walk from the finish and had a hot drink and a chat with some of the locals.

The BHTT is run over a great course, with excellent organisation and is an event that I certainly plan to do again some time in the future. If you’re ever near Brighton on a Saturday morning you can’t do much better than to go along and take part.