A race against my younger self

I previously ran the Drogo 10 back in 2010 and 2014. How would the 50-year-old me fare against those younger versions?

Racing to the finish at the Drogo 10 yesterday. Photograph: Marietta d’Erlanger

It feels great to be back racing again. Yesterday I took part in a 10-mile trail race on Dartmoor, and after all those months of slow meanderings around Ireland, it felt wonderful to be haring around the hills at breakneck speed, leaping over rocks, surging up hills, racing to the finish line.

After doing mostly ultras for the last five years or so, it was also great to be wrapped up and heading home by lunchtime. How very civilised indeed.

I’d raced the Drogo 10 twice before, once in 2010 (when I was 36, just a month before I set off for Kenya for the first time) and again in 2014 (by then age 40, but fitter and leaner after having trained with the Kenyans and spent six months in Japan). How would my 50-year-old self compare to those previous versions? Finding out was an interesting prospect.