Day four of this year’s tour saw the field migrate to Campbell Park for one of the two courses that haven’t changed in many years. The route consists of a very fast start down the belvedere hill to the canal and then a long drag back up to the top before a second lap repeat to get it up to about 4.4 miles.

Elliot, Andy, Tom, Jo and Fiona were all on their fourth race, while Tim had registered a time for the course earlier in the week as he was unable to make the run on Thursday. These six were then supplemented by a few guest appearances from Pete Mackrell, Chris Norman and Adam Haylock who seemed to have forgotten that this is a hideous race and certainly not one to choose to run!

Pete certainly showed some good form throughout the race though as he worked his way through the field to come home 3^rd overall in 23:36. This pushed Elliot back a place from his usual 4^th which was made worse by another non-tourist and last year’s overall winner Mark Palser. However, his 24:23 remains a very good time and he is pretty clear in 4^th overall.

Andy staggered home next in 13^th place after what he felt was a lousy run, being nearly a minute slower than 2013. As a result Tom, Chris and Adam had their eyes on catching him and were all within 30 seconds at one stage as they finished 14^th, 16^th and 17^th respectively in the region of 26 minutes, but none were too delighted with their efforts either.

Tim’s recorded time from earlier in the week gave him 21^st place, which was not too bad considering he did it on his own, but has meant he’s slipped back from Tom and is dead level with another tourist (Andy Kirschner) with two to go.

Jo did manage to put in another solid performance and is gradually working her way back up through the ladies field after finishing 4^th last night and is 5^th overall after four races with just a 20 second gap to make up over the final eight miles.

Fiona was also less than enamoured with her run too in finishing as the 30th lady, but at least she’ll be back off-road tomorrow which certainly seems to suit most the club’s runners more than redway based races.

Friday’s race consists of two miles of hills around Brickhill Woods and whilst it’s over with relatively quickly it is pretty painful.