Race 4 of The Tour was a one mile track race at Stantonbury. This is easily the shortest race in the series which also means it is the fastest , and the four (and a bit) laps didn't provide any respite for aching legs. Conditions on the day were windy once again, but at least the wind was in the faces of the athletes on the back straight which enabled some fast sprint finishing on the home straight.

There were five separate races on the night with the current Tour standings used to split the runners so that they were racing against people of similar ability. By virtue of their high positions in the current standings, Pete Mackrell and Chris Norman both lined up in the first race which featured nine other athletes, many of whom are far more accustomed to wasting their lives running in circles around a running track. Feeling thoroughly miffed at having to do a race over such a stupid and short distance, Pete and Chris spent the entire first lap and a half at the back of the pack contemplating exactly how one should run a one mile race. At this point they both decided they should probably be putting in a bit more effort and so picked up the pace, making up a few places with Pete eventually finishing 5th and Chris 8th, in 5:09 and 5:16 respectively. Both held on to 4th and 7th places in the overall standings.

Alex Britt started in the fourth race of the night and he is showing no signs of weakening as the week goes on. He paced himself well, picking off other runners throughout the race and he put in a strong sprint to finish third in his heat with a time of 6:09. He moves up one place to 30th overall. Last but by no means least was Richard Inchley, with the senior Inchley providing a perfect demonstration of race pacing by running each lap to within a second of the previous one. His time of 7:02 was two seconds faster than he ran the previous year, and he moves up one place to 39th in the standings.

Day 5 will see the runners return to more familiar terrain… cross country!!