After the ‘fun’ of a beach race last month this was time to get back on the road. I’d heard good things about the Mid Summer 5 race - mainly because you get beer and a burger at the finish - this sounded just like my kind of race. It’s an evening race which seems to be better suited to the beer/burger idea!

The weather was great although there was a little bit of a breeze. The race starts by a lovely memorial hall a couple of miles out of Chichester and then heads towards the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit where you run a full lap and then retrace your steps back to the memorial hall to the finish.

I was feeling reasonably fit and wanted to have a good run. I set off near the front, got into a good group and just got on with it. Heading onto the motor circuit was interesting as I’ve only been here once before (to watch a bicycle race) and now I’m running round it - taking in those racing lines on the corners - albeit at about 8 miles per hour! There was a bit of a headwind at times at the course is very exposed. These seemed to coincide with slight uphill parts of the track.

I ran well, paced myself pretty evenly and finished 41st overall with a time of 33:07. The winner ran 26:18.

I’ll certainly come back and do this race again - especially now that I have ‘put down a time’ to compare against in future years.

Oh, and the burger was lovely at the finish.