Hamstreet 10k race report
The official website said “The course will be run along quiet country lanes and we’ll be looking to set a flat or slightly undulating course to enable some fast times to be posted.”
Hmm, nice, I thought.
But…
The Runner’s World page said: “A first-time race around the tracks and trails around the village of Hamstreet, and, primarily, through Hamstreet Woods.”
Run Britain called it ‘Hilly’
Hmm, I thought. Who is right? Surely, the official website?
No.
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE WAS LYING ITS LITTLE HEAD OFF! BAD OFFICIAL WEBSITE! BAD BAD BAD!
It was muddy and hilly and hilly and muddy and muddy and hilly and hilly and muddy and, well, you get the picture. This picture, in fact.
You can see from my splits that the hills may have slowed me down a tad.
I’m glad the official website was wrong though, as it was great fun and definitely a challenge, as I’ve never run that far through woods before.
Unfortunately, it proved to be a touch too challenging for one poor chap who I passed as he was lying on the ground being attended to by marshalls (who tried to block my view of him; I wasn’t being a vulture, I was making sure it wasn’t Shaun [who passed him on the course and upon seeing he was in trouble tried to help him]).
Shaun was there to meet me just before the finish line and told me to give it one last big push but I had nothing left in me and I shuffled around the lap of the field and to the finish line where I was given a generic medal
instead of one engraved with ‘Hamstreet 10k’ on the back of it. Presumably they’d run out of those by the time I finished. They’d also run out of goodie bags too, but apart from those two minor points and the major point that the official website described the route in a way they couldn’t have got more wrong, I went home weary and happy and headed for the pub for lunch.
Stats
Distance: 6.25 miles
Time: 1:15:41
Pace: 12:07 m/m
Calories: 628
Lying official websites: 1
Hills: All the ones in the world ever
Flat bits: None
Mud: Lots
Generic medals: 1
Roast lunches: 1
Boats of gravy: 3