7.30pm 5 miles in 37 mins 41 secs
Week to date mileage 19 miles
Month to date mileage 5
Average weekly rate 29.3 miles
Average monthly rate 127
Year to date 636
Lifetime 10229
Tonight was the first in a series of Suffolk/Essex 5 mile evening races from Nowton Park Bury St Edmunds. The weather was surprisingly warm and dry after recent rain seemingly every day for the last couple of weeks.
Perhaps the combination of the good weather, the enjoyable location at Nowton Park and the excellent organisation all helped to swell numbers as even with a few minutes before the start of both the junior and adult races there were big line of last minute entries.
The guys in the registration tent did a brilliant job as looking at the results on the Saint Edmund Pacers website it would appear the race entry must have exceeded 500.
The figure of eight course has a bit of everything - to begin with there is a mile and a bit within Nowton Park. As per usual most people belt of at a good pace partly to get good position as some of the corners are fairly narrow and with the volume of runners you can get stuck behind a group and overtaking is then not easy.
Things begin to settle down after emerging from the park and heading up hill to High Green. The course runs through a farm across rutted tracks and some puddles. . There is then a good downhill section near Nowton Church before another slight climb, more downhill before returning on to the same road and into Nowton Park for a sprint down the avenue of elm trees.
I took lap times but I haven't made much sense of them and I think I must have failed to stop my watch at the finish as my overall time seemed to be more than the official time.
Anyway my lap times were
Mile 1 7.30
Mile 2 15.42 - 8.12
Mile 3 23.49 -8.07
Mile 4 31.00 - 7.11
Mile 5 37.56 - 6.56
I was slower than last year by 13 seconds by the official time. I struggled to get going and felt hot after the 1st 2 miles. I didn't take enough drink at the half way point and would have better off stopping and having a drink. At this point the hot air balloon looked much more inviting than running.
However it was a good event and depending on work commitments I am know considering whether I can do any of the other events in this series of races.
| Friday 15th June - Kirton | |
| Friday 8th June - Ipswich | |
| Friday 22nd June - Stowmarket (Haughley) | |
| Friday 13th July - Great Bentley |
The free race t shirts were very popular.
As per usual I will load up many other photos on my flickr site in due course.
The heat can definitely have an impact on your racing.
ReplyDeleteAbout my new blog, wordpress has a very handy macro which lets you import your old blogger site without many problems, but you would probably have to spend a while re-doing your numerous links!!