Longleat 10k

That's right, I'm actually writing a blog post! It's only been 5 months since my last. Really bad!

Anyway, I hope to make amends with regular posts as we are now in 2016, race year! Infact I can't believe it's March already. My training has been a little inconsistent of late to say the least so there is no time to lose with getting back on track. More about that in future posts because for now I want to focus on my first race of the year.

For the Christmas just gone I was spoilt! Along with some clothes and bits and bobs, my wife bought me a new triathlon wetsuit (review to follow)  and entry to the Longeat 10k race. Awesome! Not everyone's cup of tea to have a race as a present but I bloody loved it. The race was on Sunday 7th February so I'm a little late with my report but here goes.

Originally this was meant to be a half marathon which went through the safari Park but this changed and the race became a 10k starting outside Longleat House. A positive for the race was that all entrants had the chance to buy discounted tickets for the park after the race. So with this in mind, my wife surprised me further by not only booking tickets for the park, but a hotel for the night before so we could make a family weekend of it.

On the morning of the race I woke up feeling rough! I'd not been feeling 100% the week leading up to it but shrugged it off. But that morning I woke with a sore throat, blocked and headache. Really, the best thing to do would have been to miss the race and stay in bed, but I hate to let a race entry go to waste, especially as it was a Christmas present. I ignored it, put my kit on and decided to do it anyway. I thought I might be able to sweat out any illness. Now I'm no doctor but I don't think it works like that.

Anyway, I made it to the start line on a very cold Sunday morning. The forecast had predicted rain, but despite the cold, it was a bright and dry morning; one less thing to worry about. The organisers of the race didn’t really think through their approach to parking and with 5 minutes to go to the gun, there was still at least a mile long queue of cars, filled with increasingly angry runners, still waiting to get in. This meant the start had to be delayed which then frustrated the people ready and waiting at the start as it was bloody freezing.

A very, muffled voice said something on a poor sound system which I could not make out, but after he’d finished people started shuffling to the line, so I guessed it was time to get going. I gave my wife and kids a hug and joined the crowd. A few minutes later, a hooter sounded and we were off.

It was a very congested start making it difficult to get a decent pace going to start with. Eventually the road widened and I could get going. Excellent! Or so I thought. As it turns out, this 10k is one if the hilliest 10ks I’ve ever run and before we had even reached the 1km marker a beast of a hill had presented itself! It was steep with sweeping corners. It flattened out at the top and I thought, ‘nailed it, let’s crack on!’ This was merely a false sense of security as this flat was nothing more than a slight respite. Ahead of me I could now see an even steeper hill which wasn’t pleasant to run up at all. All this and we had barely made it to the 2km mark. Add the fact I couldn’t breathe through my nose properly and feeling rough, I was ruined!

But as the saying goes, what goes up must come down, and I eventually reached a nice long downhill. A chance to regroup and increase my pace. The route itself was very scenic, passing through country lanes and eventually coming back towards Longleat House. This was nice and flat and my pace was good at this stage. I saw Lucie and the boys cheering me on; gave Madoc a high five and pushed on. It was going quite well at this point, but then I saw it. The route came back on itself and headed toward another nasty looking hill. Not as steep as the first but a pain in the arse none the less. As I started the climb I could feel myself starting to flag, it just wasn't happening . I dragged myself to the top, still following my one golden rule of no walking, and caught my breath. 'Surely that's it for major hills,' I thought. WRONG! To my delight, I had to climb the hill from the start for a second time. This time it hurt. It took a lot to get to the top, and I have never wanted to stop more in a race in my life. The downhill after this was a welcome relief and I knew the end was close. I had a little left in the tank to increase my speed on the home straight but it wasn't enough to stop me finishing in a shocking time.

I eventually crossed the line in 50minutes, a whole 6 minutes off my personal best 10k time. I was not happy and felt like absolute crap. My plan to sweat out the illness had only made things worse. I found the family and headed back to the hotel to get showered and put this race behind me. All in all, a bad day at the office.

On the plus side, Me, Lucie and the boys had a great time in the safari park after the race. I never get tired of watching Monkeys destroy people's cars (the buggers even snapped the back windscreen wiper of our car!). Every cloud and all that.

Overall Rating: 

Pros

• Scenic route
• Awesome medal and T-shirt
• Discounted safari park tickets

Cons

• Parking
• Lack of support and atmosphere
• THE HILLS! (not a con, just a pain)