Race Report by Claire Newman
I bloody loved the Cabbage Patch 10 last year and fully intended to do it again this year, so when the announcement was made that it unfortunately would not be continuing I was really sad. Then came the brilliant news that another club had decided to take on the organisation and it was back on! Second disappointment came when the email to say places were on sale went in my junk mail and I missed getting one as by the time I noticed they had all sold out 😩 I managed to wrangle a transfer by paying more than I should have and my second trip down to Twickenham was on!
Lisa had a full car this time as we headed south at about 6 in the morning in the torrential rain. Thankfully the rain cleared as we parked and we grabbed out stuff and did a mini-pub crawl of the available toilets on the high street. This race is a real community affair, there are no portaloos at the start, instead all the business (pubs cafes etc) open early and let all participants use their loo’s even without being customers.
One of the MASSIVE improvements this year was the chip timing, last year the timing as gun to chip, and as I started quite far back i lost about 2 mins crossing the line. This year there was no fear of that, but I wasn’t going to be on for a PB anyway.
We set off and Nicola and Simon zoomed off ahead pretty early on. I had decided follow my NYC race strategy and the run the first 3or4 miles before settling into the intervals of walk run to maintain my marathon pace.
There were a couple of little tweaks to the course, one which included some rather slippery cobbles, but overall it was the same route as before. The first half being urban, with some nice opportunities for house shopping, the second half being along the river and more scenic. I love the river section the most as it is so varied, and beautiful.
I picked up Simon who was having a wardrobe malfunction at mile 4 just as I was about to start my intervals and we stuck together for the rest of the race. It was really nice to have company as I often find I am a bit of an imbetweener in races and never seem to end up running with people. This was a lovely change.
I felt pretty good, it was certainly a nice change to know I ‘only’ had to run 10 miles, that said – I was very pleased to see the finish line and after getting my medal (wooden), top (long sleeve), and goodie bag, I swiftly opened my free can of London Pride!
We watched everyone else come in, found speedy Nicola, waved Simon off into an Uber, and headed to the the Cabbage Patch pub for the prize giving. No bike for us this year 🙁
After a well earned ‘spoons lunch it was back on the road (with heated seats) bound for the Midlands. It was another lovely day out with the Massey Massive 😍