Race 6 : Seaford Striders Mince Pie 10 Miles
Race: Mince Pie Ten
Distance: 10 Miles
Time: 1 hour 26 mins
Firstly- THANK YOU to Seaford Striders for organising a race at a sensible time on a Sunday Morning. 11am is a lovely time to start a race! Our Alarm went off at 8am (Now THAT’S what I call a race day lie in) and we were very pleased to see the sun shining once again. The Mince Pie 10 miles is a race we did last year and what a race it was! It was such a grey miserable cold, wet and windy DECEMBER day. It really ticked all those December weather Stereotype boxes (apart from Snow- thank god!). 2016 race day however- looked glorious. It was a very cold fresh morning once again and we set off at around 9:30 to pick up a fellow runner Petra in Brighton on our way along the coast heading east to Peacehaven.
The first thing we all needed to do was have a pre-race wee (of course!) and thankfully this year they learnt from last years mistakes and had ordered some porta loos. (last year I nearly missed the start of the race as I was queuing for one of only 2 ladies loos in the leisure centre). We still had a whole 20 minutes to wait for the start of the race and we were soon joined by Rob (our friend and personal trainer who runs Stridefit and got us into Trail running in the first place). It’s a hugely popular run amongst the local running clubs - maybe because of the guarantee of a mince pie at the end- but yet again it was a sell out. While we were waiting I saw arm grab man who told me off for folding my number last weekend at the Crowborough 10K. I tried to hide as yet again my number was EVER SO SLIGHTLY folded to that it would take up less space on the front of my running top. Luckily he didn’t see me- I even saw him smile at someone at one point.
At the last possible minute we headed out into the cold to assemble on the start line. It was probably the first race this season where I could actually hear the pre-race instructions being read out over the speaker- hooray. The count down was great - a pre-recorded 5-4-3-2-1 to music and then we went on the horn. And we were off. I set off with some slight trepidation as the start of the race turned ugly really quickly last year with one lady turning around to wave at one of her friends and sent another lady falling flat on her face HARD on the tarmac. Yeouch- I think about that fall a lot and it definitely flashed before my eyes again at the start- so I made sure to pick my way carefully through the crowd and watched my footing! The start of the race doesn’t really mess about and soon we are climbing up the first of many hills in this race. The race is a mixture of road running with a few trails thrown in for good measure too. The road running winds through some really lovely housing estates and it was nice to see some friendly faces waving at us (Claire and Steve) at various parts in the run. I would say the first three miles wound through housing estates before we headed out into the country side and across part of the south downs for around 4 or 5 miles before a final 2 /3 miles back through more residential streets. What a difference a year made. I could actually see for miles this year including a beautiful sea view at one point- it really was a stunning race.
The race was good fun as I had company this time in the form of a ridiculously chatty Rob Jones. Despite running and chatting I was still pretty happy and surprised with the pace we were keeping (sub 9 minute miles pretty consistently!) - Yes- I wore a watch again. The miles ticked by nicely and I was feeling pretty good until the hideous hill which appears during the second half of the race. It’s just so nasty. It climbs and it climbs and then you think its over and it climbs some more. I ran the whole thing on Rob’s heels and took over a few walkers and slowed down slightly at the top to try and recover - somewhat less chatty now! The next 2 or 3 miles were a bit tougher and I started to feel a bit tired and maybe even beginning to regret going all out the day before during the Worthing 10K. I also started to experience a slight niggling pain in my knee which was completely new to me. Never before have I had problems with my knees. I decided to ignore it and keep going the best I could.
As we approached the final mile we got over taken by a man dressed in a skin tight red onesie who was carrying a brown ‘sack’. When we asked him what was in his sack he explained that he was handing out sweets to the marshal's. We then saw him stop at every marshal along the rest of the way to hand them sweets- a nice touch I felt. This race required a whole lot of marshals so it was nice that they were being thanked with this little gesture of festive generosity- even if his skin tight onesie was a litlte gross.- ha!
Despite Rob's best efforts I failed to manage the epic sprint finish he was pushing for. In fact I was very happy indeed to cross the finish line and shove my victory mince pie into my face hole. It was a great race, in glorious sunshine and I managed to finish a whole 11 minutes faster than the year before. That'll do!
I've now reached a break in my scheduled runs while Alex and I selfishly go on honeymoon for a whole month to super sunny Australia. I'm on the look out for any runs we can take part in while we are there- otherwise I am going to have some serious catching up to do when I get back!
24 to Go!
