It was a good start to the autumn as I won a wet Axa 5 in 29.29 from Andy Harrison (30.51) and Phil L (31.06) - who was managing/inspiring/ organizing the BVT team that won. Phil did a great job, but with Andy Cooke (32.10) also running and only needing four in a team it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected, as Simon Laraway (34.12) brought the team home in 23rd!

It's not the easiest of courses, starting uphill, followed by a steep downhill section and then lots more climbing, although there are only a few steep bits. After one of those strange starts where people appear to sprint off with little hope of keeping the pace up, I settled into the lead as the rain made the downhill slippery.

It was good to see Andy H. running well, I think he had a little bit more experience than Phil who has only recently been running at these speeds. In fact they weren't that far behind until the last few miles, I'm not sure what to read into that, I'll put it down to my marathon training, although I'm not convinced about that.

Dave Beddows (31.54) narrowly missed out for yet another year as he finished fourth, and Gwen Kinsey (34.15) won the womens race - I notice she was eating her post race pasta while Chris Bailey was having a smoke, Phil a pint and I was looking for the wine gums - that's ship yards for you.

The rain was a nuisance all evening, lots of heavy showers, and although it's ok when you're running, it ruins the occasion. Jon Goodland wasn't entirely sure BVT was a real company team ...and doubtless he'll be right next year (there must be a whole of BAE joke there along the lines of the whole of Samoa).