Having missed my lunchtime run I was talked into the Guy Fawkes 10k last Friday evening at short notice.
I turned up with my camera in the hopes that I could just spectate. Well I had run 22miles on the Monday and struggled a bit on Thursday lunchtime run. Even offering to marshal didn't seem to do the trick. I think they just wanted my money. So I lined up with what seemed an awfully large number of other runners on a particularly narrow country lane near to Easton College.
The race started very promptly at 7pm and it took a while, or at least it seemed to take a while, to get to the start line. We then crossed the finish line for the 1st time within 50m. The first 200m was rather slow due to mainly to the narrow lane, the number of runners and I guess partly because I'd not started near enough to the start. It was at this point that I was getting worried. You see at the 1k mark the course did a U-turn and we were all going to be coming back down the lane. If the lane wasn't wide enough to handle the runners going in one direction, how would it be able to hold runners going in both directions? Fortunately the lane became much wider for the last 500m before the U-turn. Phew, that was a relieve.
Round the turn and back down the hill. First km in 4:45 - a nice steady start. Over the finish line for the second time and back over the start. Second km in 4:20. The course then turned left and did a loop that took you onto the Barford road to the 5k point (22:07) before bringing up a hill into the showground, back to and past the U-turn, a right hander before reaching the finish line (7k marker) up a hill and into the village of Easton, along the High St, a left at the 8.5km point, down a hill and then left into the finishing straight, over the start line for the 3rd time and into the finish. My last km was 3:57, total time of 44:11 so a negative split with my second 5k being 22:03. Three minutes off a PB but for a steady run whilst in taper mode, on an undulating course when I entered spur of the moment so not too bad and a seasons best as well.
Will admit to being confused as to why an event in June is named after Guy Fawkes. I guess that something caused them to move the event after the finishers medals had been produced.
The event proved even more satisfying when I later found out that Tri-Anglia finished second in the team event.
Results
| Place | Time | Name | Team |
| 11 | 0:36:11 | Dave Ledward | Tri-Anglia |
| 22 | 0:38:55 | Darryl Davis | City of Norwich Athletic Club |
| 26 | 0:39:14 | Paul Cassels | RAF Tri |
| 33 | 0:40:02 | Anne Flannagan | Norwich Road Runners |
| 54 | 0:41:40 | Mark Clues | Tri-Anglia |
| 57 | 0:42:44 | Mark Philo | Tri-Anglia |
| 72 | 0:43:42 | Richard Sargeant | Tri-Anglia |
| 78 | 0:44:11 | Rob Lines | Tri-Anglia |
| 116 | 0:47:56 | Andrew Verney | Tri-Anglia |
| 122 | 0:48:13 | Zoe Catchpole | Tri-Anglia |
| 133 | 0:49:34 | Sarah Sargeant | Tri-Anglia |
| 148 | 0:51:33 | Mark Hardiman | Tri-Anglia |
| 149 | 0:51:34 | Philip Howitt | Tri-Anglia |
| 224 | 1:02:48 | Rob Evans | Tri-Anglia |
| 225 | 1:02:49 | Trish McCarthy | City of Norwich Athletic Club |
Winning time was 32:14 by Andrew Hennessy of Wells City Harriers and there were 243 finishers. Apologies to any club members that I may have missed from the list above.