Litotes, λιτότης, understatement, is the prevailing rhetorical mode among race organisers. Every runner will recognise the cheery marshal’s cry of ‘only one more hill’, when what he means is either that that hill is a huge beast of an incline, or that there are in fact countless hills ahead.
So when the organisers of the Heathfield 10k describe their route as undulating, what they mean the reader to understand is that it contains hills on an Alpine, if not Himalayan, scale. Therefore I feel quite pleased with myself for having completed it in 1:05:03, 217th out of 237 finishers, on a very hot day. The hills were exacting, but I still had strength at the end to overtake a few as we at the slow end of the field approached the finish with a circuit of a rugby pitch.
Thus encouraged, I worked out with the aid of fellow club members that I in fact could still run enough of the remaining Sussex Grand Prix races to satisfy the SGP requirement to run at least eight of them, including one of ten miles or more, and my club Grand Prix competition, which requires just six; I might even throw in a couple of off road races like the Firle Half Marathon.
