Shepton Mallet 10k
This past Sunday I ran the muddy and hilly Shepton Mallet 10k.
It was the final race of the 1610 race series of which there are 4 races. Unfortunately, this is the only one of that I have done, just like last year when the Cary Canter was the single race from this series that I was able to run.
Raring to go!
Having not raced since Burnham half marathon and also not run an awful lot of miles since then, I wasn’t too sure how I’d feel during this race. I ran my local Parkrun the day before in 20.30 which was probably way too fast the day before a race but due to my lack of mileage I knew my legs would still be quite fresh.
This was also the first time Steph and the girls had travelled with me to a race for while, Burnham half is on our doorstep so that doesn’t count! It meant I had some support and thankfully, for the first time ever, we managed get to ready and leave more or less on time with a minimum amount of stress!
Shepton Mallet is just under an hour away from where we live which isn’t too bad so we got there with plenty of time to register, soak up the atmosphere and warm up. It was a grey day and wet under foot but other than a brief shower before the race, the rain held off.
It was also quite chilly which made it even more important to get in a good warm up. It was an odd location for the start and finish of a race. 1610 is a chain of sport centres and gyms but this race was held in a park with just a very small café and some public toilets there. I was expecting it to be at a sports centre but other than long ques for the ladies loos, the amenities were adequate enough for the number of participants.
After my warm up I moved to the start line and got in the zone. I also had a quick pre race catch up with my friend Sonia (@girlikesrunning). Neither of us had run this race before but we both knew it had some respectable hills and joked that it couldn’t be anyway worse than Brean Down.
After nearly delaying the race start due to the que for the ladies loo, we had the count down to the start and soon we were off and running. I made a quick start and as usual had placed myself right at the front. The start of the course saw us run across the grass area of the park, then round a large pond, up some pathways out of the park then onto the open roads. Because of the nature of the start having the potential to cause bottle necks, the organisers had learnt from issues at last years race to stagger the start which I thought was good. Not that it effected me as the first wave were those running sub 60 minutes and the second wave a minute later was for over 60 minutes.
My first pink medal, shame I don’t have the other 3 that link together with it
Once out on the roads we were descending almost straight away which obviously meant it wouldn’t be long until we were climbing again. The first steady climb was about 1k in and wasn’t too steep, just quite long. I overtook a few people here then tried to settle down into a steady rhythm. My first mile was clocked at 6.21 which I think was aided by the bit of descending at the start. The second mile that included some climbing ticked over at 7.39.
Once I’d settled down I found myself out on my own. I could see people ahead of me but they were already too far off for me to try to catch and at times I could hear very faint footsteps behind me and when I passed a marshal I could hear the encouragement for the next runner not long after I’d passed. It can be test of mental strength when running out in the sticks with one around you but I just kept plugging away.
Speaking of marshals, on the whole they were great and they had one water station between 5 & 6k but at one point coming down a lane to a T junction the marshal and another person stood next to him made no effort to tell me whether I was going left or right until I asked where I was going. For me this is quite poor as they should always be directing runners. As I said, on the whole they were great and I have massive respect to them volunteering their free time to help out, it was just out-of-place for an otherwise well organised event.
Happy to have finished!
Anyway, I was ticking off the kms thinking how I’d forgotten how hard 10k races can be. I was wary of going flat-out too soon as I wasn’t sure how my fitness would be and I was about to find out. Just after 6k was the hill the announcer had warned us about and it was a long, in places steep, climb. It was gut check time. I’ve always prided myself on my natural ability to climb hills but after struggling at Brean Down recently, my confidence wasn’t what it was. As I started to climb I even started to question whether I could run all the way up it but other than blowing quite hard I made it up without stopping and my legs weren’t too bad afterwards.
Now I knew I was just over a Parkrun from the finish and I pushed on down the descents. Throughout the race we ran along single track country lanes that were caked in mud from the local farmers tractors, there was literally no dry parts on those lanes and you could feel the mud and water flicking up the back of your legs.
Just a little bit muddy!
Eventually the route came back into the town area and followed the same way into the park as we’d come out. Remember me saying there was some descending right at the start? Well that obviously meant climbing at the end! Those faint footsteps behind me had started to get louder but I was determined not to turn to look at how far back he was but the final two up hill kicks were just a little bit too much for me as I felt him on my shoulder as we entered the park. We then had to run back across the grass to a cone then turn for what was almost a 100m straight sprint to the finish. I didn’t know what I had left but I waited too long before sprinting and the guy behind got the jump on me I didn’t have the legs to catch him.
The pained expression of a sprint finish
That meant I finished in a really good 14th out of 228 runners which I’m really pleased with. My official time was 42.33 which I am also happy with due to the nature of the route. Sonia also did well, finishing first in her age category and 3rd female overall which is awesome.
So overall it was a good, well organised event and a race I will to do again next year and hopefully complete the series.
