A good race

Had a great race yesterday out in Bungay (Suffolk/Norfolk border). It was the great East run, a 20km run. Fairly flat except for some big (ish) hills at the start and finish.

For a change I had company at this race which was really nice. Doing this particular event was the brainchild of my friend Chris (who also very kindly drove us there) and I’m very glad he suggested it was great to catch up and it was also one the most fun races I’ve done in a while.

The run started at 11am so we had set of from Cambridge at 8am to allow plenty of time. We found the place quite easily though and the parking was well signposted so we were there before half nine. We found race HQ and got changed and then put our bags away in the storage area and then, well just hung around for a bit until the race start.

It had been sunny on the drive down but it was a bit overcast coming up to 11 and also cold. They tried to get us all out early but as I was cold I decided to wait inside until closer to the start time to line up. I’m glad I did as it was quite nippy waiting for the gun to go off but I met a few people from work in the line up so had a quick chat to them while waiting.

The actual race was really nice, it rained a bit and was windy but the countryside was very pretty, the route well marked and well marshalled and fairly flat (apart from a few hills at the start and at the end). There was also a great goody bag including a medal plus a free beer and soup at the end. This was a really nice race and I hope I can do it again. I couldn’t drink the beer as it was an ale and theses tend to not be vegetarian but that is no big worry and the soup was vegetarian. Having a few friends there also made it much more fun than normal. It was great to catch up with Chris. We’ll be doing the Milton Keynes half marathon as well next month so that should be really good.

Training in the last week has gone pretty well. I did 20 miles last Sunday and went running, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was quite tired by Thursday so had a rest on Friday and had only a half hour swim (the pool was very cold) but with the workouts and other swims I still had a good weekly exercise total. Now I just need to work out how to balance things for next week's very long run.