Ipswich Evening Social Run
Now you are thinking why oh why would this be an important run to blog about!? Another social run - yeah yeah yeah! It's not like those Ipswich lifers don't social run every week. But I promise you tonight is different. This run was to support a fellow runner and to celebrate her achievements. I wanted to share firstly how amazing Nichola had done and also what a lovely event this was for the Ipswich running community.
By way of background Nichola had spent the last 18 months doing over 40 different challenges in aid of Cancer Research UK and Woolverstone Macmillan Centre. As a number of the challenges had been sporty Nichola had decided to end the 40th day off with a group 10km run around Ipswich. The run was always intended to be social so everyone could join in no matter how quick or slow they could go. It was all about getting out there together.
At 7pm on a lovely Tuesday evening around 16 runners all trundled down to Isaacs. After posing for a number of photos for the press and our usual selfie photos fest we started off on a 10km route. The route would test our hill running to the max though as we headed out from the docks towards Holywells Road and up Cliff Lane. This is a rather steep and long incline. The bonus is that when you make it to the top you instantly have a downwards section. Bishops Hill saw everyone whizzing down at some speed before regrouping at the university.
The major issue we had was head torches! They interfere with selfies! Needless to say the bright lights and hi-viz were great to be seen, but not the best for a sneaky selfie.
Once getting down the hill we took a right turn up Grimwade Street towards Westerfield road. Here we bumped into another female running group who each Tuesday do circuits around Christchurch Park. They were a great inspiration for everyone getting up another steep hill. The top of the hill took us onto Park Road. Excitingly this meant the rest of the route was down hill! Yipeeeee! This was probably music to a lot of peoples ears as this was the first 10km some of the group had ever run.
Everyone had a great time out on the route - lots of running chats - race discussions and quality time to catch up for all involved. It was a pleasure to be involved in such a lovely evening with so many lovely people. Great event and great excuse to have a social drink afterwards to help Nichola celebrate her success over the last 40 days.