Just for a change, I’ve managed to race so attached is my comments on
Chester 10K.
It seems like a reasonable idea to do this race. I vaguely remember the start can be a little congested…
Travel to Chester with Kate. Car parking is in a field, so I momentarily wonder if I’ve gone orienteering after all. However, there’s no Wilf’s (food van) and there’s lots of people in shorts and vests so we must be in the right place. Ruts in field look ominous. A few cars are stuck. (This does feel like orienteering…) Car parking marshall helpfully directs us to “keep to the grass”. I wonder exactly what else I can keep to…
Kate and I warm up. Bit nippy and bit windy. Where’s the start? It isn’t very clear to me, or as it turns out, to 900 or so other runners. Find a nice spot by an ivy-covered tree. This turns out to be forward of a chalk line labelled “ST”, marked on the road. Several hundred other runners are also beyond “ST” so we need shuffle backwards… and backwards… and backwards… Mmmm, cosy! Now not quite as close to the start as I’d like to be. Gun goes off. Weave in and out for first bit. Hopefully it’s very good training for something.
Rural course seems hillier than I remember it… and windier… At 9K I now understand why the mountain rescue team has organised the race. Finish straight is on grass. Gang of Wilmslow runners has already finished. Good turnout from our club! Jane gets a PB. Julie gets a PB. I get tired. Not bad.
Sally Gilliver