Race: Staplehurst Carnival & Fete 10km

My third 10km race, a (fairly) flat course, decent weather, good training, well rested, well hydrated, well fed - Everything was in place for a good race!

Firstly my race pack never arrived in the post so I had to arrange for a replacement number to be available upon arrival in Staplehurst. We arrived with an hour to spare, went to the race HQ and collected my hand-written duplicate race number (no.18).

There were 118 participants in today's race, it's quite nice to take part in these smaller events (I'm not a fan of the mass warm-up sessions and excessive branding you get at some larger races).

I should also mention that it was quite a hot morning, muggy and overcast up until the race started, during the race we had bright sunshine - The high for the day was forecast to be around 28 degrees Celsius.

...in the light blue shirt

The course was nice, we started off on a side road for 500 metres before going out onto the main road, being a small event there were no road closures, the main road wasn't too busy and all the drivers I encountered gave plenty of space for the runners while overtaking.

Thankfully we soon turned off the main road and onto some very quiet single track country lanes that weaved between farms, and with views of the beautiful Kent countryside. The race description said that it was a flat course, I'd say it was slightly undulating, whatever it was it was definitely flatter than the other two 10km races I've done. We followed these lanes around for the next 8km and then came back out onto the main road to head back to the finish.

I was so happy to finally reach the end

The last 250 metres or so were slightly uphill and after running at a strong pace for almost 10km it felt like I was running up a steep hill rather than along a slight incline! I had nothing left in me for a finishing kick, to be honest just keeping moving was a real struggle for most of the last 3km, but I did keep moving and my splits show that I kept an almost even pace for the entire race.

Click - ( GPS Map ) to see the map of the course from my GPS data, if you click on the summary tab you can see my splits, my GPS didn't register it as the full 10km but it has been known to be slightly out before, also I faffed around before pressing stop at the end, so the last km split time shows it to be longer than it actually was!

You've got to have the medal shot...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My official finish time was 42:07 - A new personal best..... by over 5 minutes!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The race organisers ( Nice Work ) have a blog and have put the results up ( here ), I came in 22nd position out of 118 participants.

...and you've got to have the family shot (does that sound wrong? oops)

As always, the wife took the photos - thank you again, but this time both of our 'real' cameras' batteries ran out before the race started (silly, I know). Luckily we had two mobile phones that have cameras that we could fall back on - We had four devices capable of taking photos with us in total - and that just seems normal these days.


7t.

Pre-race thoughts - Staplehurst 10k

This weekend I am registered to run another 10k race, this one is in Staplehurst, Kent. According to everything I've read it's supposed to be a fairly flat course.

My current personal best (during a race) for 10k is 47.13. My goal for this race is to break the 45 minute barrier. I feel like it should be well within my capabilities, I recently ran a 20.55 5k. I've increased my mileage significantly over the last few months and I'm feeling good while running. But you never know what will happen on the day!

Today I've been in contact with the race director because my race number and instructions have not yet arrived. He has been extremely helpful and if it doesn't turn up by Saturday I can contact him and he'll have a replacement print-out of my number waiting for me on race day.

All I have left to do is a couple of easy runs and then a nice rest on Saturday. The weather forecast looks good at the moment, although it's so random at the moment it could easily change. I'm really looking forward to this one, probably more so than the others, and mostly because it's supposed to be a flat course!

I try to get a race report with photos out on Sunday evening!

7t

Another 10km Race

I have entered the Staplehurst Carnival & Fete 10km Race. According to the website it is a flat course. It's only a very small race, last year only 120 people took part. I don't expect anything fancy here, it does say that all participants get a medal but it doesn't mention timing chips, so I'll have to rely on my phone's GPS and the HandyRunner application and my stopwatch.

It's only a few weeks away and will form part of my training towards the Tonbridge Half Marathon, at the end of September.

If I have a good day (and trouble free training) I should be able to break the 45 minute barrier.

I will of course post a race report, and hopefully the lovely wife will take some more photos!

7t.