Race Report by Alison Lowe
The morning dawned very bright, sunny – and frosty! – despite being the middle of April! I had not run the Regency before – nor have I run the Leamington parkrun so was not really familiar with the course. I had done the cross country in November so knew what some of it was like when muddy. I’d not run a 10km race since October when I had first run under an hour and I had hoped to again be under an hour today even if not a PB.
First stop was to brave the cold and take off layers to leave in the baggage area at the well laid out finish area where already there were some Masseys gathered. After the first of the team photos we made the short journey over to the start area.
We were soon on our way – and we soon found the mud. I’m not sure why, but I had ignored Daniel’s advise from the day before warning about the mud and had worn my favourite trainers! Whilst not deep, there was plenty of mud and numerous puddles – which many people decided to try and dodge leading to us making quite slow progress along this part of the course. I had been told that the first 5km was quite slow due to the number of people and the narrow path but with the extra puddle dodging we were actually stopping at certain points ! I soon realised that my chances of a decent time were slim. However with having to concentrate on where we were running and with it still being crowded the first 5km did pass quickly and even the hill I had heard about didn’t seem too bad.
With the lap of the golf course over we were then back on tarmac, past the leisure centre and off on the roads where we were greeted by quite a number of cheering supporters. Having run alongside Jephson Gardens we then entered Victoria Park. Our paths then crossed with the runners who were coming out of the park – I was slightly confused as to where everyone was going to and from but it was well marshalled and marked out . The park was lovely in the sunshine and the course nice and flat so it was a glorious finish to do one lap of the park and then over the road to go into Jephson Gardens for the final kilometres. My watch now seemed to be a long way behind the kilometre markings so I tried to take the longest route on the paths as I didn’t fancy running any further after the finish – then realised as it wouldn’t be a PB ( or sub an hour) I was perhaps overthinking things!
A short stretch on the road then led us to the finish on the grass – which being a bit slippy did not lend itself to a sprint finish! It was then a short walk to collect the goody bag with a t-shirt and a welcome bar of chocolate, banana and water as well as a distinctive medal. Despite not getting a good time myself, my son Sam and a few others did manage PBs.
Overall a good race – although crowded and with two very different types of terrain. It was well organised though and I would do this again next year – but with lower expectations for my time, and wearing old running shoes!