Stowmarket Scenic 7
Today is a day of many firsts!
First race back after ankle injury!
First race at a seven mile distance (although have done less and more)!
First race where I have not felt under pressure to be super quick!
I travelled up to the race with some fellow running buddies - which i think helped keep any nerves at bay! The race was organised by the Stowmarket Striders running club. It was a great turn out with around 500 people racing! There was a great buzz upon arrival and lots of super excited lifers ready to tackle the course.
Runners have a bad habit of turning up early everywhere! I am equally as bad and we were there bright and early! In fact a good hour before the starting horn was due to sound. Despite this there is never enough time to catch up with everyone! The above picture only has a small proportion of the lifers in attendance so getting around everyone is tricky!
The race started at 9.30 out on the road outside the high school. Racing has always been a challenge for me as I get over excited at the start line and whizz off too quickly! I had promised by running buddy Claire that I would be super sensible today, take it easy and try and run with her all the way round. What can I say...... I tried my best! The first mile and a half I took pretty steady, but then brain switched to race mode and I was off!
I have attached my STRAVA route so you can see the course outline. I think I may have gone into this race blindly! I was under the impression it was a relatively flat course! How wrong I was - there was hill after hill after hill! In all fairness the hills did go up and down, but it certainly felt that there were more up! Think it was quite a shock to the system as although I had been running for the last four weeks hill training had not been on the cards! I decided to try and give it my best shot though and took the hills steadily!
The course itself was beautiful and I can see why it is known as a scenic race! The trees were still autumnal in colour and the majority of the course wound through country lanes and pretty villages. You can see I really enjoyed the race as I finished with a sprint and a smile upon my face!
Never in a million years did I think I would be back racing so quickly! It was such a buzz and loved being able to achieve something again. Plus celebrating success and the post race de-brief with this crew is always great fun!
Onwards and upwards to race number two scheduled for next weekend!
