Northampton Run Fest 10km – Race Recap

Sometimes I like to treat my blog like a delayed catch up with a friend; you know when you’re chatting over coffee or dinner and you remember this oh so important thing that happened last month you completely forgot to mention?

That.

Anyway, in short, a few week’s back I put my big girl pants on and ran a lovely Easter Sunday 10km trail race.

The weather was ideal (not too cool, not too warm) and the location was pretty and close to home and the fellow runners where a seriously friendly bunch. A little group of us stood around waiting for the loo, chit chatting and offering encouragement and it made a huge difference to how I felt about the race.

The race its self-was 3 laps of a slight trail(ish) course with some single file points in places, some sweet little dips (which felt rather exciting) and each lap was completed with a huge grassy hill (delightful).  

On the day there was a 10km, half marathon, and full marathon so there were many points when I was being passed by faster runners on other races and at some points, I had overzealous people breathing down my neck due to the tight path. None of this mattered though because I was relaxed, I soon realized it was not a PB course and rather than getting frustrated I was just plodding and treated it as an enjoyable Sunday run.

Much to my delight on each lap, we were offered jelly babies, water and sport’s drink (I’m not sure of the brand but it was wonderful) they also handed out a hair bobble so we could track how many laps we’d covered (12 for the marathoners!). There where many bright supporters and super friendly and encouraging marshalls which really changed how I viewed the whole experience. I’m one of those people who think ‘Your doing great keep going’ is encouraging, even if like me your just pottering around it makes a world of difference.

I crossed the finish line in 58 minutes, I found the course tricky so I was pleased to be under an hour but most of all I was happy because I’d had a great experience and there waiting for me was G which was really unexpected. Of course, I bounded towards him like an over-excited puppy, squeaking ‘I was so slow but I had so much fun’ and that’s what it’s all about. 

Have you run any races recently? What makes a great race for you? A PB or a great environment?

I rarely get a PB on races, but that’s because I’m odd… ?

Katie 

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