Race Report by Michael Hammond
I did my first Draycote 10K on May 14 2017. I wanted to do it again primarily because in my head I had thought it was not that bad in terms of inclines, whilst almost everyone I spoke to about it said they thought it was ‘Hilly’. My finish time in May was 01:07:32.
The setting for the run is glorious, being around the paths that surround Draycote water, and the weather at 9.45am was dry and sunny.
I programmed ‘mapmyfitness’ on my iPhone to give me updates of my speed every Kilometre and I started around 8 K an hour in the first few K, speeding up to 9 in the second half .
It was good to use the run as part of my training for the Birmingham half Marathon in October. The Massey training programme on the app told me to do a steady run for 45 minutes…just a bit over then.
The start is nice and straight and as I reached the part where you go past the finish line ( before the actual finish) I remembered the view of the climb behind the visitors centre and restaurant…I did what I had done last time and used my arms, reduced my stride length and attacked !
Doing a run in a beauty spot with such a large entry level is a bit of a strange experience. The people on a stroll around the park seem a little disturbed by the interruption. Cyclists seem to actually resent the fact that other groups can dress up in lycra and look almost as daft as they do ! (sorry cyclists amongst you.. I do a bit of cycling myself but have only gone as far as wearing a helmet and a bit of commuter cycling to Coventry city centre).
The second half of the race does have quite a few climbs. I spent a lot of time running past people up the hills then being over taken by the same people as I recovered by walking on the straights.
In my mind I wanted to do the last two K a bit quicker ; 10K an hour. But it didn’t happen. I managed to do a bit of a sprint towards the finish and was pleased with a time of 01:06:26.Considering I had to make a diversion into the bushes for a ‘comfort break’ at around 4k It was a good result, and I recommend the Ben and Jerrys’ Mint choc chip ice cream in the café afterwards!