A busy weekend for RntS

On Sunday I ran Exeter half marathon during a trip to beautiful Devon visiting my daughter. The weather was perfect for me, cold and overcast with no wind. The course is two laps mainly in the quayside area of the city. The race is run over two days, Saturday for sub two hour runners and Sunday for everyone else! We started really promptly at 9am with short five minute briefing, mainly to say try not to fall in the river and let’s all cheer for the man running with an ‘actual’ fridge on his back!

It was all very relaxed and I definitely benefited from the chilled out atmosphere, just enjoying another Sunday morning long run of marathon training and forgetting it was a race. My loose plan was to see where the tough bits were on lap one so I knew how to pace lap two. I quickly realised that it was tough as soon as we left the quayside to gradually climb through woodland paths and a residential area. It was steadily undulating for the first 5k with one steep but short hill. We crossed the Countess Wear bridge running alongside the main road and it became flatter. We made our way down to a small industrial area, where we could run on wide traffic free roads. Here I gained pace benefitting from the flatter ground and continued at a faster pace back to the quayside. Mat was waiting at the turnaround point to cheer me on and I felt good knowing I was halfway. The second lap felt easier with less runners now on the narrow paths. I took 10-15k steady and sped up for the last bit back to the finish. Whilst happily taking in the riverside views of fishermen, herons, happy cyclists and squirrels, I suddenly became a bit competitive! I realised I could actually run a faster than anticipated time! I finished happy, strong and proud in 2:07:07, with ‘man with fridge’ crazily only 13 minutes behind me!

 

02:07:07

I signed up for this event as I wasn't sure whether Brighton marathon would be going ahead and I didn't want my training to go to waste; it looked a lovely route and I wasn't disappointed.

 

On the day we drove to Aylsham to catch the bus which would take is to Norwich which is where the race started from. Once on the bus I sat with Nur and Andy and we chatted which passed the journey really quickly. We got our numbers and after a quick briefing by one of the Positive Steps guys we walked down to the start. In the briefing they said out of the entry money not only had they donated the £5 per person to East Anglian Air Ambulance but also some money to the Turkey earthquake appeal. 

 

During the briefing the organiser joked about how he'd organised perfect trail weather running; he wasn't joking - it was dry, warm enough without being overpowering and a slight breeze. There were hardly any muddy bits on the whole run and lots of dry leaves as a carpet to a tree lined tunnel. 

 

We started the race by heading towards Norwich and then doubling back to pick up the Marriott's Way. On this part you could see all the others, some were really quick runners and others were choosing to walk due to the generous cut off time. One was using it as kit testing for another, longer race so she had a solar panel on her kit!

 

It was a lovely route, there was three checkpoints along the course which had drinks and snacks; I didn't use the first one as I had enough with me but I needed to fill up drinks as a 'just in case' on the second and third. 

 

Along the route you get to see all the old railway stations which breaks up the scenery. This is a very popular stretch for walkers (with and without dogs), cyclists and other runners, so although on some stretches you may not be able to see other runners ahead or behind you there's always someone not far away. 

 

Thank you to the RntS who popped up along the way for support and it was really lovely to be able to run part of the route each with Nur and Andy, especially as we'd done some training runs together. 

 

Getting closer to the finish I realised that I'd been a bit quicker than previous long runs and was awarded with a marathon PB, actual finish time was a little more due the route being extra! No need to run in circles to round it up 😂 

Perfect running weather for the Valentine 10k.  A  good warm up of a 3/4 mile walk to the start.  We all met at Easton college to collect our bib numbers, admire the heart shaped trophies on show and head to the start for the race briefing.

 

The route was undulating and such a lovely run along country roads around Easton.

 

The marshals were great, so supportive and encouraging with lots of support along the way was very welcome.

 

The medal at the end was nice to receive - a wooden heart. 

 

Ant Cude - 41:26

Tara Betts - 44:14

Cam Raven - 46:30

Sarah-Jane Smith - 46:51 - pb

Stuart Gollands - 47:28

Paul Woodhouse - 48:39

Paula Smith - 48:39

Lucy Mccallum - 54:49

Will Ayley-Dodd - 55:41

Kerrie Coslett - 58:45

Vanessa Green - 01:08:12

Angie Barker - 01:18:12