Nathan Mapperley said it was nice to pick up a win in ‘enemy territory’ at the Valentine’s 10K on Sunday.
Cambridge & Coleridge runner, Mapperley, held off the challenge of City of Norwich AC’s Logan Smith to win the second race in the Sportlink Grand Prix Series in 30:26, breaking the course record in the process.
Ipswich-fan Mapperley turned the screw in the final two kilometres to pull away from Smith, who still managed to post a 10K road PB in the process in a time of 30:35.
Mapperley joked to Sportlink TV: “We (Ipswich) don’t get many wins over here so it’s nice to come to enemy territory and pick up a win.
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“I was able to sit in on Logan for about 8K and I decided to make my move with about 2K to go.
“There was a nice downhill bit before moving uphill in the final kilometre.”
Mapperley hopes the race will provide a platform for the National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill later this month.
“I wanted a hard run out before that and I also wanted to get a 10K time to get in to some other races later this year.
“It worked well and it was great to race with someone like Logan and have someone to work off.”
You can catch up with the latest Sportlink Grand Prix standings here.