Fountains 10k

Does anyone else look for races to do when they go away somewhere? I've been in Middlesbrough for the weekend to see my parents and go to the Sunderland-Middlesbrough match (booo! - but we did appear on Match of the Day for 3 seconds). So I looked on the Runners World listings site and found the Fountains 10k, based in a village near Ripon in North Yorkshire. If I'd read it more carefully I'd have discovered that it was approximately 10k, and over mixed terrain. Not that that would have changed my mind about entering.

Anyway, I entered at the last minute, which is why I was quite surprised to be given the number 3. That's probably the lowest race number I've ever had. And although it would be nice to play the game of 'beat your race number', I've only been able to be 3rd or better on three occasions that I can remember. Having said that, the entry limit for this race was only 350, so not very many of us there.

The event was part of a village fun day, which was billed to include "numerous stalls, activities bouncy castle and most important of all, ice-cream!" - unfortunately the weather meant it included numerous puddles, umbrellas, and most important of all, dry socks. But I guess if your fun day is in April in North Yorkshire, you've got to know there's a chance of that.

There was a fun run at this event that took place, unusually, an hour before the main race. I'd recommend races stick to the more normal technique of setting off the kids just after the adults get going - for one thing, you don't run the risk of people arriving in their cars on the same roads that are being used for a race. There was a slight problem with this event that there was so much rain that the car park had to be changed from its first choice field to one futher up a hill, but I didn't see anyone get their vehicles stuck in the mud, so it all worked out OK.

So the race: it was fun! It was about 4 miles on undulating (sometimes hilly) roads, about half a mile on firm bridleway, and the rest across moorland or on a grass track. It was the moorland that was given all the press before the race: we were warned that it was very wet, and it was - not least because it was pouring down all day. Quite boggy in places, but the way forward seemed to be to go in the puddles where you thought the path was, and hope that it was only ankle deep and not knee deep. The hardest part was actually the grassy track, because that was muddy and very slippery, and that's the only part I felt I lost much time (and was overtaken by anybody).

Each mile of the course was marked, which seems a bit strange for a 10k race, but I guess that's another indication that it was only an approximate distance. Also there didn't seem to be an actual start line, just a general area. And I suppose they had no idea which route anyone took to cross the moor! I finished in 5th in 37:40, happy that I managed to be stronger than the only other person I found myself running with for any length of time, leaving him behind after the last couple of hills (apparently I love hills, they've made me strong).

My parents were waiting for me at the finish (and apparently I didn't look too happy at the end), having stood in the rain for all that time - it's a bit rubbish for spectators when the weather is that bad. Everything was all right once we got back to the car and had some sandwiches, of course...

Flitwick 10k

Before I forget, I'd better write about last weekend's Flitwick 10k. Another local race that I'd never done before - well, not as a North Herts Road Runner, anyway. I actually have been there before, but that was in 1998 on a day trip from university with the orienteering club and I was pleased to get 39:48 on that day (a minute behind Norman Leslie, now I look at the results).

The course was different then. I remember it as undulating but still fairly fast (but it's amazing how often your memory misses out important features of an event). This year the hills came as a bit of a shock to me. Which is a bit annoying, because normally I do quite well on hills. I think the problem this year was that I was trying to get a PB, or more specifically under 36 minutes. I didn't manage it, getting 36:10 instead. So of course I'm trying to persuade myself that it was all the hills' fault. That or the 200m finish on grass. Anything other than myself, really. OK, I probably went too fast for the first 2km. Don't tell anyone.

The race seemed to be pretty well organised. The pre-race instructions included a map marking different car parks depending on which direction you were coming from, which was a good idea (except the one we were aiming at was chained up when we got there - it didn't matter in the end, because we parked in a school the other side of Tesco instead, and so we bought our lunch on the way back to the car afterwards). Our Standalone favourite luxury portaloos were there, taking the strain off the facilities in the hall. And in the hall were huge maps - road and satellite - of the course.

Plenty of marshals, although it didn't appear to be a particularly tough route to marshal, and a scenic enough route, if you could ignore running parallel to the M1 for a mile or two. And if the clouds hadn't been so low that you couldn't see more than half a field away.

So I got to the end - slightly too slow - and could start to concentrate on the other club members finishing. It was good to see John Franklin finish with no sign of his recent long-term injury, and Suzy back racing again. It was also impressive to see Rebecca Lancaster finish her first 10k, having hardly run even half the distance before.

Did we win anything? I want to try and add this section to the end of race reports, but at the moment the Flitwick 10k site is broken. There are conflicting reports: Derek Myall may have won a bronze medal in the county vets race... but last time I talked to him he thought he'd come 4th.

Let's get started then

Since the marathon blogs proved so popular - and since most were for the London marathon, now in the past - I thought I'd join in this new NHRR blogging craze. Well, I say 'I thought', but really the webdude twisted my arm until I said I would. This isn't a marathon blog, though (well, except in the sense that I might be doing it for a long time).

I've never really been interested in blogs - they usually strike me as being self-indulgent ramblings of people who don't have anything interesting to say. So that's exactly the spirit in which I intend to write this. You don't have to read it, after all...

I haven't worked out what I'm going to be writing about yet. I'm certainly not going to list my training every week, because that's a bit dull (and I'd have to admit how little I actually do). But this seems a good place for race reviews and anything else running-related that I come across. And I think all my posts can receive comments from you lot. If it takes off, it'll get like the Runners World forum, except I get to delete all the parts where your opinions differ from mine (i.e. you're wrong).