Race Report by Helen Rowe
Run Silverstone
5000 people were running Silverstone on Sunday 24th November 2019. Run Silverstone had a choice of distances: Family Mile, 5K, 10K and Half Marathon. Cal had “won” a voucher for The Race Organiser, and had decided to use it on the Run Silverstone 10K. I signed up later, on 18th October. It didn’t occur to me that I had an appointment to give blood on 22nd November – just two days before the race.
There was an appeal on the app for a car share to the event, made by Ed. I offered to drive, as Cal was full of cold, and not feeling 100%. It was another early start. I asked Cal and Ed to be at mine for 7.30am. We headed down the A45/M45/M1 to the venue – the iconic Silverstone Track. We saw the sun rise on route. It was hanging low in the sky, glowing a beautiful red. It would have been lovely to get a photo, but there was no opportunity to stop when driving down the M1. Cal had a coughing fit in the back of the car, and was struggling to catch her breath. I passed back my energy drink.
The pre-race information had warned us that we would have a mile walk from the car park to the race village, but we were lucky enough to get parked in Car Park 22, which was right by the track. We were there by 8.30am. We collected our numbers, and then found some more Massey runners. It was cold and misty. Some people arrived quite late, with very little time before the start. Apparently the traffic had got much worse. I was glad we had set off earlier.
The Family Mile went off first. We could hear the starter over the tannoy. It sounded much more appealing than the 10K I had signed up for. I drank my electrolyte drink, and we queued to use the facilities for one last time, before heading out to the pens (1-9). All 3 distances of 5k, 10K and Half Marathon were starting at the same time. The Half Marathon had pacers. I elected to start in Pen 5. We were soon moving forwards, towards the start line. It took nearly 7 mins to get to the start line, and we were off. It was the second race I had done around a race track, as I had previously run Rockingham. There were quite a lot of spectators either in the stand, or lining up along the track at the start, and the 10K and Half Marathon course took us past there a second time, although we weren’t strictly doing laps of the course. The route was well marked. We all shared the first part, but soon the 5K runners were being directed off on another path. The 10K and HM runners continued on the same route until about 7K, when the 10K runners started heading back towards the start/finish, whilst the HM runners continued on more loops of parts of the track. I was very relieved that I was only doing 10K today. It wasn’t my best or fastest, but I remembered I had given blood on Friday, and that had taken its toll on my energy levels.
At the finish we were given a medal, a technical t-shirt, crisps, water, a protein bar, choc protein dippers, and an iced coffee – a veritable armful of goodies. Whilst it was not the most inspiring of routes, it was not too boring, and for anyone interested in Formula 1 it was an iconic place to run.
We were graced with cheer leaders, a choir, and a steel band on the way around, who entertained us on route.
We stayed for a coffee, and a mooch round the shop rather than rushing back to the car to join the long queue of cars trying to leave the car park. The run home was very straight forward too.