Sunday 1 April 2012

Race Report - Bowood 10k

Well today was race day.  The day dawned bright and sunny, absolutely perfect conditions for the run, in fact I couldn't have asked for better.  Got to the race around 20 mins early to collect my number (693) and then followed a 10 minute queue for the loo.  Wasn't sure what to do about the start, people were queueing by the time I was ready for the off and I didn't know what he etiquette was.  Should I 'push' in somewhere near the front or just place myself at the back of the queue?  I ended up going to the back and, with one race now under my belt, I won't be doing that again.  The claxon sounded and we were off .... well, the front runners were off, I barely managed to shuffle into a jog as I had a wall of people in front of me who were impossible to pass.  The only other race I have ever competed in was a 5k Race for Life around 7 years ago and the start was exactly the same for that so I'm wondering if this is the case for all races?  People always seem to set off much slower than I expect and, due to the nature of this particular race it was pretty much impossible to pass them within the first mile or so.  In all honesty it probably didn't really make that much difference to my overall time but it would've been nice to get into my own stride quicker.  The course started on tarmac and then turned into a trail (through woods) with a short downhill section - this was followed by the first of many uphill sections although this was probably the worst .... pretty steep and it kept on going.  Luckily by the time we got here (probably a mile or so in) the field had opened up and I was able to overtake other runners; this really helped to fire me up and encouraged me to keep on pushing.  The next few miles kept on through the woods, undulating but nothing too dreadful and then the last few miles were across open fields.  This wasn't too bad but then we ended up in this one field that had long grass and an annoying sideways slope so that we were running with one leg higher than the other - remarkably disconcerting.  This, for me, was by far the worst bit of the run and I was thankful when it was over even if the end bit of this section was another killer hill.  The final stretch was across parkland and then the last 100m on tarmac to encourage a race finish I assume.  Once I had managed to clear the field I actually managed to spend quite a lot of the run on my own which was very much to my liking.  Race result:

Time: 56:06
Position : 132 out of 240

Really, really happy with the fact that I finished in under an hour and finished pretty strongly.  I had saved a tiny bit up for a sprint finish but I had nobody in front of me that was near enough to catch and nobody behind me to keep at bay - hey ho.  The post-race banana and bottle of water that was provided was much appreciated.

I am really hooked on running and I cannot wait to do this race again next year to see if I can improve my time.  Looking back on the race I probably had a couple of opportunities where I could've stretched myself a bit but, not having raced before, I was worried about running out of steam so I tried to keep at a comfortable pace.  Two real positives from the race 1) I managed to run the whole thing and 2) I was far stronger on the uphill sections than I thought I would be and I managed to overtake lots of other runners going up and not have them overtake me at a later date.


Upon returning to the car, I found it covered in leaflets about future events and I think I've found my next race -  The St George's 10k in Corsham on Sunday 22nd April.  Bring it on!

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