Stowmarket Scenic Seven

11.02am 7 miles in52 minutes 37 seconds.

Year to date mileage 1141

Month to date 51 miles

Average miles per month 109

Average weekly rate 25.2

Weather: Sunny, mild and bright no wind.

Course: Start is from the Stowmarket Leisure Centre. This is a circular run which takes you through the villages of Onehouse, Harleston and Shelland. The course is as described and there is some beautiful scenery and some wonderful Suffolk pink farmhouses to admire.

There are two fair sized hills that you encounter. The first is just after the 4 mile sign and the hill is a fairly long drag of somewhere between a half mile and three quarters of a mile I would estimate. The second hill is somewhat shorter at around 6 miles. There are also some good down hill sections as well though.

Stowmarket is mid way between Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich and the Leisure Centre is easy to find. I believe there was a race entry of well over 300 which I can see from the Stowmarket Striders web site that this would mean there was a significant increase in entries compared to last year.

I arrived early least I thought I had at 10am but by then the car park was virtually full and I only just managed to find a space.

This was only my second race of the year and my first wearing the St Edmund Pacers Club Vest. As this was remembrance Sunday before the start we had a 2 minute silence for all those who have died in wars. This was well observed and I must have totally switched off as I didn't realise the race had started as I didn't hear any starting signal.

I set of well and was surprised by my first mile time of 7.07 which was too quick and not sustainable. At 2 miles my time was a more reasonable 14.28. At this point I think I had settled into the pace of the race which was run in bright sunshine and those who had decided to race in running gloves and bottoms must have regretted it.

I settled in behind a couple of Brandon Hern Hoppers who sheltered me from any wind and pulled me along. At 4 miles my time was 29.29 so I was still on a 7.22 pace. The hill at 4 miles is a long drag but consciously at this point you are over half way and thinking get up the hill and the worst is over. At 6 miles my time was dead on 45 minutes which is 7 .30 pace so I must have ran 8 minute miles between the 4 and 6 mile point. My final mile was run in 7.37.

So my splits were approx

Mile 1- 7.07 Mile 2- 7.21 Mile 3- 7.21 Mile 4- 7.09 Mile 5- 8.10 Mile 6- 7.52 and Mile 7- 7.37

Finish time 52.37 which overall is 7.31 pace.

There were 2 drinks stations on this course, not many spectators and a few cars as the course is open to traffic. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who fancies a well organised event in the heart of Suffolk.

As to the distance being 7 miles not sure why apart from obvious that it enables you to finish at the Sports Centre. I guess there can't be many races at this distance? I would prefer it to be a 10k f there was some way of shaving of the 0.8 of a mile then you have an even better race but I guess you would lose the uniqueness of the event.

More photos of the race are on my Flickr site.