Bamburgh 10k

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Victoria Tindale

I only decided to do this race a few days before as I was up in Bamburgh on the Saturday so decided I might as well stay up and do a 10k on the Sunday. I thought it was going to be fast and flat and then I started to read the race reports from last year which gave the impression it was much more hilly than I had expected. I decided to do it anyway as it was good motivation to stay in on a Saturday night and stay on track for operation wedding dress.

I woke up on the Sunday and while everyone else was celebrating the sunshine my heart sank a little. I went down to the cricket pavilion on my own and did miss my usual pre race catch up with Louise and felt a bit lost having no one to talk to at first. That didn’t last long and people I spoke to were really friendly and I got the impression that there were a lot of people who weren’t used to doing races and were quite nervous.

The race started up at the castle and the views were spectacular. You could see for miles and the sea was flat calm, there was a little part of me that wished I was going out diving in the sunshine rather than about to start a race.

The start was downhill so I decided to take advantage and set off quite quickly. I had really struggled last week at Blaydon so as soon as we reached the bottom I made sure that I slowed down. We headed up past the shops and I was pleased thinking that we were going to head up the road that my mam and dad were walking down to meet me. Unfortunately we turned off and headed left after the Victoria pub.

The rest of the course was on open country roads surrounded by fields. It was nice but a bit of a shame to be so close to the sea and not really see it. The course was described as undulating, there wasn’t any real hills but there did seem to be some long drags uphill. Given that I ended up back where I started, whatever I ran up I must have ran down but I really can’t remember the downhill bits.

There was a water station half way and because there wasn’t so many runners it was easy to get a drink without stopping and they were offering options of bottles or cups. There were markers all the way along and marshalls on every junction so you couldn’t get lost.

The sun seemed to come out even more during the run and to be fair I think that despite my best intentions I set off faster than I was capable of sustaining so struggled towards the end. I tried to pull out everything that I had as I knew my mam and dad would be near the finish so managed a very lacklustre sprint finish of sorts.

Not a PB but actually not far off and I am glad that I did it and would do it again. If nothing else, I was in a place that I love and able to stay and enjoy the sunshine after a visit to the gift shops, and I am one step closer to looking good in that wedding dress.

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