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Welcome back Tony

Thursday 20th October 2022

Following a long recovery from a knee injury Tony Rickwood tells us about the East Grinstead 10k, his first race in two years and a great Phoenix performance all round.

Race 10 of the Sussex Grand Prix took place at East Grinstead on a beautiful sunny and windless morning.  Andrew Haig,  Steve Selby and I shared a ride to the race which  passed quickly as Andrew shared stories of playing washboard  in skiffle band, the Unkempt. Next performance Saturday morning at One Church.

The course is billed as 7km trails and  3km road so Steve brought 3 pairs of shoes with him, just to be safe. But unless a word with the race director or our course recce had identified a muddy bog he was only ever going to wear the AlphaFlys.

I was making my return to racing after a 2 year gap caused by a persistent knee problem, so pacing was going to be by feel but it was great to be back going through the pre race routines and banter.

Onto the race: We started on a playing field but quickly funnelled into a narrow trail path so a quick start was required to not get caught in the bottleneck. For the first couple of Ks there was a  group of Phoenix running together including Alison, Steve, Giles, Sam and me. This started to break up after 3k as we naturally found our pace. Stuart (Roberts) was already way ahead in a tussle between the front 3 athletes.

The longest section of the course is along a disused railway for about 4k which I ran alone so settled into an even pace on the long straight, helped on by some local support.  Stuart continued to battle for position at the front whilst Steve and Alison pushed each other on.

The last 3k are through suburban streets. I had closed to within 100m of the next person and some encouragement from a marshall to “picture a target on his back” helped me run the 9th as my fastest km. I caught and passed my target with 500m to go, holding him off for a sprint finish in a surprising 6th overall in 37:45 which was much better than I had expected.

Despite a marshall ’not noticing’ Stuart which caused a missed turn and one of his hard fought positions he still finished a fantastic 3rd place in 36:07.

Phoenix finishers came in fast with Giles Newlyn-Bowmer (9th), Will Russel (10th), Alison Moore (12th) and Steve (13th).  It was a shame there was no team prize with 6 Phoenix in the first 13. Alison was victorious as first woman for the second week in a row. Awesome running. Soon to follow was  Andy Bunt, Simon Russel, Andrew Haig (who definitely won his age group) and Sarah Russel making up the Phoenix team. Apologies if I have missed anyone.

Well done to all the Phoenix athletes, some great points won in the Grand Prix. 

I'm looking forward to the next race already. It’s great to be back!