Salomon Trail Series Race 3: Silvan 14.3km
The easy days leading in seemed to be what I needed. Not exactly a taper, but enough to get my tendon and leg issues under control. Pre-race I was still aware of a certain level of stiffness and the generalised low grade aches that goes with a heavy training phase. So I gave myself a long gradual warm up of 45 minutes to get everything primed. On the start line I felt more relaxed than usual. My knowledge of the course was based on the info on the race website and the areas around the start and finished I covered during my warm up. I brought my racing flats along in case the surface was more straight forward than the previous two races. After the recent rains, a lot of the tracks had turned to sludge and trail shoes with grip was definitely required. Looking at the times for runners I knew from last year, I guesstimated that if I ran okay I'd probably hit a bit under 75 minutes, and sub-70 would mean I was firing. All runners will gather in the start / finish chute in Sil...