I had been looking forward to this race for ages, this race being a real curates egg. We don't have many Saturday races (apologies X-Country) and apparently a few guys still turned up on the Sunday, and we have even fewer races on our great midlands Industrial legacy - the world famous Brum canal network. More canals than Venice they claim - more water more like! The omens were poor, as torrential rain was forecasted. As we took the train in to Wolverhampton though the skies cleared and miraculously we had great weather (well, just  a headwind) for the entire run!

We all gathered for our running chips and were let loose on the canal in waves. These were determined by predicted finishing times and there were about 5 or 6 runners in each wave. Personally I found this ideal and was in wave 13, with a 1.40 end time. I was using the race as a decent training run, the first for Berlin marathon training in September, but for race purists I guess it was off putting, as it was more akin to a speed trial. It also meant that as I took in the scenery and inumerable little bridges, everyone quickly spread out, so after about 5 miles it really was like a Sunday morning run down to Smethwick, just me and Faithless on the iPod. Running wise, it was great. Lots of guess work involved (mile markers had been flung into the canal in places), and irregular water stations, but after about 5 miles, i managed to stretch out a bit and do the rest at 7 minute mile pace, and catch up with a couple of earlier waves (we had gone out a 1 minute intervals). Other thoughts - the legendary tunnel of darkness was disappointing (it didn't seem much at all), on the website everyone moaned about the 1 toilet for 500 people - what did they think the canal was there for ?? - and the particularly poor medal (Mark Lynock - we will not be following their lead for our 10km Goody Bag for the Leafy 10km!) , but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Being totally honest, as a race it did suck a little, but as a local who loves running the canals and exploring the local area, it was great! I'll be back next year.

One final comment though. My ever dependable Garmin timed me at just after 1.35, the website at 1.38, which was very odd. I have a suspicion that as it was one way chip timing (no mats at the start) and no real indication of the where the finish was, a fair few of us finished and stopped, but hadn't actually crossed the mat. No that it actually matters ....

Well done to other Harriers. Met with Simon Varcoe and Stuart Pearson at the finish - both seemed to do well. Not sure if Mick managed his time goal though.

Mike Scotney

Mick writes:

"For the record.. I did complete this course in my worst ever time of 2.18 (I was aiming for 1.55). First half was fine but suffered with the heat and needed to stop. Fortunately for me and the club they spelt my name incorrectly, and because i was a late entry, did not put my club details on the result site so you do need to look hard to find me which is fine by me."