Mersea 10 Mile Race
The Island holds many great memories for me - mainly due to family connections. My mum grew up there for many years- plus my auntie and cousins still live there today. This Island connection with my family therefore make the Mersea road races very appealing to enter. I was really excited to discover I was free on the 28th August 2016 so I could sign up for the 10 mile road race.
Historically I always used to sign up to races with my running buddy, but over the years other commitments have got in the way and we have occasionally had different events on the same day. Today was one of these days and I set off to Mersea independently. Upon my arrival it was great to find out a number of other RFYL crew were also racing so I have some great pre race running chats, banter and support.
For those of you who are not aware - RFYL stands for run for your life. It is an online Facebook group created for runners. I have been a member for about a year and its purposes is for runners both locally in Ipswich (and actually around the world) to be able to share their stories, successes, injury concerns, photos, arrange local runs and meet fellow runners. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a member and will do a separate post on all the great adventures spent with the RFYL crew in the future. This online group has allowed me meet a number of runners. This makes turning up to races alone a much less daunting experiences.
The actual race consists of two loops. This gives entrants an option to complete either a five mile or ten mile race. The race starts down by the beach huts providing a beautiful view of the beach and the sea. The course heads out in an anticlockwise direction through East Mersea past some beautiful countryside. This eventually taking you down a speedy hill towards to strood. If you ever tackle this race definitely make the most of the down hill section as once you have past the strood you start a long steady uphill section back up to West Mersea, through the town and back to the start again. This year there were some jelly babies on offer to help us get up the hill. Always very appreciated.
The set up the race is fantastic. To be honest any five mile course loop which sports three water stations is always going to be amazing for me. Two of the stations had water bottles and one cups. I always run so much better when hydrated so these facilities were a massive win for me. The support from the marshals and the locals is also incredible. Really enjoyed this race and defiantly looking forward to taking on the around the Island Race next year.