What could be more agreeable, as Kenneth Clark would often say, than a 10k on a fine May evening in the grounds of a stately home? Nothing, I thought, so I took myself, after a hard day's librarianing, to Petworth Park for this race faultlessly organised by the Midhurst Milers.
The course is two circuits of Capability Brown's park, alternating flat stretches and ascents, and with a fine descent to the half-way point and finish. The weather was fine, a slight breeze cooling us in parts of the course. We passed lakes, the statue of the dog of Alcibiades erected to commemorate a favourite dog drowned in one of the lakes, a herd of deer who prudently fled us and flocks of geese.
A few days after Sunday's gruelling ten miler, I was pleased to find I had something left in my legs. It was hard, but I knew I had enough to keep going to the end. I finished in just over an hour, 1:00:04. I would rather have finished in under an hour, but I felt, on a hard course, that it was a respectable time.
