Lucas Payne has been nursing an injury for some time and he entered this race to see if his body was on the mend. Here is his report of the day.
It was a very cold, windy day. 224 runners all lined up, or should I say huddled together, off went the hooter and we were away.
The route was very interesting in that it was a mix of trail, soft sometimes very muddy ground and normal narrow tarmac roads, basically an uphill first section, then undulating and finally a killer hill at the end. Super views were the order of the day.
I was delighted at finishing 8th in a time of 38:09. However, I was brought back to planet Earth when the fellow who had pursued me relentlessly from the start finished just behind me. Heasked my age to see if I had robbed him of a prize. I said that I was 44. He said "That's fine, I am a vet 55. OK, I may look like Gollum off Lord Of The Rings, but that made me realize that I was almost dead ... you have to laugh.
My lady wife and her chum also finished their first 10k race in 1 hour. Round of applause. You never know, we may tempt them to sign up to BFR.
The Race Director and his colleagues really did organise a super event, very well marshalled. Hot drinks, flapjack and bananas for the finishers - many thanks to them all.