1st January. Most people are starting their day leisurely and possibly with a sore head from celebrating the night before. Fortunately, the brilliant marshals for the Wymondham 10k race were bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to welcome over 600 participants for the first event of the year.
Meeting at the race HQ, we followed the crowd to the start line a little way down the road. We all started together and the road was quite narrow. As it widened out, we all settled into our respective rhythms and fought the strong and icy headwinds for the first 4k. I stupidly didn’t take any gloves, so I pulled my long sleeve over my hands to keep them warm. This also meant I couldn’t constantly check my watch for my pace so I ran to feel which was good.
At 4k we turned left and the immediate lack of headwind made so much of a difference! I was really sweating with the effort of fighting the wind. Past the halfway water station and downhill for a while. Left again and then right which out us back onto the original outward bound road. The start of the race has a lovely long downhill which unfortunately turns into an uphill from hell for the return leg 🤣 Thanks to a heads-up from Vanessa I was prepared for it and managed to run the whole thing. Was also very grateful to a runner who’d caught me up at the bottom and together we slugged it out. There was no way I was giving him the satisfaction of seeing me walk and I think he was of a similar mind. The top of the hill came, a slight right and loads of ‘you’re nearly there’s!’ so I wound my little legs up and finished strong 💪🏻
A really good race and I would definitely do it again, thank you Wymondham AC!
Kirsty
Runners-next-the-Sea Results:
Kirsty – 59:13
Peter – 59:58
Marie – 1:08:37
Full results at https://totalracetiming.co.uk/raceresults/640