After much anticipation, the morning of my first 10K race finally arrived. The weather was cool, cloudy, and ever so slightly damp. Ideal day for racing! Race HQ was in a community college, so nice and warm, good facilities etc. Plenty of marshalls around to direct us in, and collect the chip and number.  A short jog to the start line, where there were portaloos as well, just in case! Clearly posted positions for runners to line up against their expected time band, so I got myself in the '50 mins to 1hr' section.  There were about 400 runners, so not too big a field. Just before the race started, there was a garbled tannoy message about not wearing your chip on your wrist - which made quite a few people move it off their ankle and put it on their wrist! Oops! Thankfully I think everyone got the right message shortly after and everyone was set up correctly before the off. 

Start was in a business park, so no traffic to contend with straight away, just one or two speed bumps to slow us down :o) Quickly got onto the main road, not too much traffic and drivers were being pretty patient.  Lots of marshalls around, to keep us on track. After about 2K, there were a few undulations, so I made the most of the downhill stratches to get forward a few places. After the first turn, the undulations got steeper around 3K, and a few horseboxes were trying to get past. One of them was really impatient, and actually drove around the oncoming traffic on the wrong side to get past! Idiot! Nice long downhill to the next turn. 

For the next 2K it was quite flat or slightly downhill, but with a few roundabouts to navigate. Marshalls doing a really good job of managing the traffic and keeping everyone going.  Just after 5K, there was a well manned and quite welcome water stop, with kids running about collecting the discarded cups. Have I mentioned how good the marshalls were? Shouting encouragemenet at every stage.

Around the next turn, and the hills return.  All those long descents now had to be paid for! Around 8K I turn the corner, and watch the horizon shift upwards with a long line of runners leading up to it! A short but quite steep hill followed, and I just about managed to keep running (just much slower!). At this point, a leggy blonde came bounding past, giving the marshalls a high 5 as she went! Someone had their ready-brek this morning!  Top of the hill and there were more marshalls, cheering us on and congratulating us on making it up the 'little incline' :o)  

From here on, it was a longer but much shallower hill round the corner and back onto the road we started on. Less than 1K to go, and the marshalls really encouraging you to keep going- not far now!

At last, the turn into the community college, and a short downhill stretch to the finish line, so I think everyone had a little sprint finish! Lots of people cheering us in, which was nice!  Also a big timer right next to the line, so you could get a good idea of your finish time as you crossed.

Preliminary results were posted up on a noticeboards within about 30 mins, so pretty quick. I forgot to collect my goodie, and by the time I got back they had all gone, but I did manage to get the T-Shirt and a £5 voucher from Sweatshop. Apparently the goodie bag itself didn't have a lot in it, mainly a chocolate bar, so I didn't miss out. 

All in all, a great experience, a really friendly and well-run race with fantastic marshalls. Definitely recommended, even with the hills towards the end! 

I also managed a personal best - knocked 43 seconds of my best training time, and came in at 58:29. Chuffed :o)

Good race report Ian and well done on the sub 1 hour.

P.S. You only wear the chip on your wrist if you intend to crawl across the finish line on you hands and knees ;-).

Heh - with the long slow uphill at the end, I nearly was crawling home!

Congrats on the PB!  Was that gun or chip time?

Just checked out the results website, my gun time was 58:29 (which is what was posted up on the noticeboard at Race HQ yesterday), but my chip time was 58:07 - which means I actually knocked 1:05 off my PB!

Chip time always Ian for PB's, the gun time is only for race position.

I DEFINITELY prefer the chip time :o) 

Of course if you're in the running for a national or world record you have to go with gun time... !

But if you were, I doubt you would be starting the race 100 metres back from the start line.

Hmm.. there's an idea - make Usain Bolt start a bit further back to give everyone else a chance! ;o)

You'd probably have to tie his shoe laces together as well. Or tell him it's a blindfold sack race.