Aylsham 5K
Rob and I were quite excited about a 5k run, as there don’t seem to be so many. It seemed perfect weather for running, not too scorching and not actually raining. Was lovely to have a bag-drop and proper loos and everything seemed really well organised. There was a lovely buzz in the market place and some of our amazing club were there to support which is always lovely, there’s something special about people turning out to support. We did the usual group photo, followed by another one for those who’d chosen that moment to warm up/go to the toilet.
Then there was a short debate about which direction the start headed in because of course we’d all looked at the map, hadn’t we!
The clouds gathered as we started but then I focused on the lovely downhill, concentrating on running with good ‘form’ like Kevin had been discussing on Monday (I figured what worked uphill might work downhill too🤣). I must have done something right because the first Km clocked in at a cracking pace and looked like I was in for a pb. The second Km was flatish, I discovered long ago that flat isn’t my thing, that Km was nowhere near as speedy but I still felt strong.
I was getting a bit lost in the twists and turns of Aylsham and at one point was overtaken by someone taking the most enormous strides…and was feeling a bit tired, my watch bleeped 3k but there was no 3k marker, and there was a steep little climb off the Marriott’s way in this Km too which had made my calves grumpy. At the 3k marker my watch said 3.3, but I thought maybe it was just one of those situations where my watch had lost satellite contact, or they couldn’t put the marker in the exact spot, or both….
More twisting and turning, past the old water tower done up for accommodation with a glass windowed staircase. Had a close moment with a silent electric car, and got passed by a runner to whom Kevin would have had a few suggestions to make about form…arms swinging from their elbows…but they were going faster than me so can’t have been doing too much wrong!
I now fancied having a little lie down in the road, and I’d normally only feel like this at 7k into a 10k, or half way through a half marathon, so I knew I’d got my fuelling totally wrong (with it being an evening run) and possibly was not well hydrated too.
I thought I was either running really badly, or maybe really well, that must be why I was tired. At the 4k marker I knew it wasn’t the latter and I was barely going to make sub 30. My watch was still 0.3k out so I started allowing for that and once there was 500m to go started counting sets of steps (3 sets of 4 footfalls make 0.01k for me🤣).
I was delighted we didn’t have to do the full hill up to the church like in the Autumn Half Marathon and tried for a slightly sprinty finish…only to be thoroughly out-sprinted by the runner behind me.
We compared watches and everyone had over clocked the distance which seemed odd.
We did a finishing photo and caught up with everyone. I got over my grump at my time when it looked like we’d run slightly over 5k
Liam popped over and said hi, (he ran this one for his first club Ryston, and Maureen was running for her second club Norwich Road Runners) and everyone seemed to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.
We sampled the wood fired pizza and some well earned unhealthy snacks.
Later, like everyone else, we learned we’d run 5.25K because some teenagers had slightly altered the course. It doesn’t sound much but it took me well over a minute to run that extra bit so my time was more respectable than I thought and Alex did get his sub 20 5K, even though it didn’t look like it. The youngsters probably thought they were just having a laugh and didn’t realise the potential seriousness of sending 400 runners where the traffic wasn’t marshalled, all was well that ended well, and the organisers did a fantastic job of letting us know what had happened.
Definitely one I’d do again, and suitable for all speeds if you can run 5k continuously. A great atmosphere and lots of cheers on the way round, and if you did fancy a pint afterwards the pubs were open too.
Nita
Official Results (Chip Times) – 5.25K
| David | C | 20:06.7 |
| Kevin | H | 20:18.2 |
| Alex | 20:29.2 | |
| Rob | J | 22:12.3 |
| Matthew | 25:04.0 | |
| Malcolm | 28:51.8 | |
| Nita | 29:46.6 | |
| Andrew | B | 31:42.4 |
| Catherine | T | 37:13.6 |
| Vicki | A | 37:14.1 |
| Marie | 38:14.9 |
Alex Moore Relay
Alex Moore relay is a team event comprised of 3 people doing laps of 2.2miles – runner A does 1 lap then hands the baton to runner B who does 2 laps. Runner C then does 2 laps, comes in to collect their other 2 runners and they all do the last lap together. Does this make any sense? Well it’s taken me about 5 years of doing it to be able to explain!
We had a fair few teams in this years event and it starts & finishes at The Goat Inn in Skeyton. What’s not to love about a pub at the end? It’s been really hot the last couple of years of doing it so it was nice it was a bit cooler on Sunday.
I chose to be runner C in Nita’s Nutters team, so 3 x 2.2ml laps. You have the company of your team mates for the last lap though so it really helps to keep you going. I can’t recommend this event enough – it’s so nice to be part of a team and the other RntS are cheering you on at the end of every lap. The only downside is running with a baton makes it get a bit sweaty but the pint at the end cooled my hands down nicely 😉🍻
Paula
Official Results
Speedy RntS (David C, Ant & Kevin H) – 01:26:11
Better Lace Than Never (Dane, Will, Ana) – 01:37:03
Runners-next-the-Sea 1 ( Sean, Matthew, Rob J) – 01:39:03
Runners-not-next-the-Sea (Evette, Bob L, Kevin S) – 01:47:11
Nita’s Nutters (Nita, Maureen, Paula) – 01:54:06