Heckington 10
25th July 2009

Although I would be doing the Race For Life on Sunday, I needed a long-ish distance run over the weekend and  the Cancer Research’s 5K obviously wouldn’t cover that, so I entered the Heckington 10 (multi-terrain) a couple of weeks ago.

The weather was lovely, hot and sunny. The race itself was part of the Country and Agricultural Show and 25,000 visitors were expected to attend (and 242 runners). The race was due to start at 11am but when I received my race pack on Friday the time had been changed to 10am due to unforeseen circumstances, so I was in for a very early morning start, especially as we were also expected to park early.

What first struck me about this event was how friendly the organisers and marshals were, although I think that if I was called ‘duck’ once more I could have cried! The runners, except me, were from the local running clubs and of varying ages and abilities.

The race started in the middle of the sporting arena after one of the cycling events had finished. We had to do one and a half laps of the arena before heading out into the countryside. The organisers were very generous with the water stations, I think that I had only run half a mile before I encountered another one. The marshals were very supportive and encouraged the runners to keep going and as I passed one of them I could hear a “Well done Bedford, when’s your Half?” So I had to shout that I would give him details when I got back (I had already given out information to the runners about the 10K that our club is doing in September, some details had even been written on the toilet roll that I had in my bag because I ran out of flyers).

The race was two laps so the first hill encountered was only a couple miles into the race with the last being just after the 9^th mile. Most who know me, know that I hate hills with a vengeance and avoid going anywhere near them. However, these were measly little things and I made sure that I was not defeated as I charged at them ‘full steam ahead’.

The only difficulty I encountered was part of the course was in the village where there were parked cars on both sides of the lane with traffic wanting to come through. Although the marshalls did their best to get them to wait their turn after the runners has passed, I got slightly stuck. A 4x4 driver refused to budge as I was running towards it and so the marshal directed me onto the path instead of the road, good idea until I realised that there was the smallest of gap to run through – between a parked car’s wheel arch and a drainpipe on the cottage next to it. This slowed me down a little as I had to cock my leg over the car and slightly leap at the same time. Apart from that the course was fine, multi-terrain’s have always been enjoyable.

Before we had begun the race, we had been told that if we finished within 2 hours we would finish back in the arena but any later and we would be finishing elsewhere due to the arena being required for other events. Unfortunately I did finish under two hours which meant that I had to complete one lap of the arena with hundreds of spectators watching which was a little embarrassing.

There were no chips for this race just a gun start and it took a few moments to reach the actual start line after the gun had been fired. Despite this, I was very happy with my time as I had only stopped twice for water and to adjust my tights as they were falling down (I must get some smaller ones or actually do them up!).

The goody bags were excellent and had numerous items including 14 foods and drinks inside, a rubbery thing (if anyone can tell me what it is I would be happy – photos on their way), wipes, money off vouchers, pen, and a pin badge. The race memento was lovely too – a little trophy. Champagne and other goodies were given to the winners.

After the race I spent quite a bit of time exploring the stalls, eating and watching the different events in the three arenas. I even won some anti-wrinkle stuff, which would be great if I had any….maybe I will when I hit the veteran category in a couple of months? It was a great day out having spent just over 8 1/2 hours there and will certainly be doing it again next year.  

There is a video of the start (I wonder if you can spot me as I was running along the inside of the arena?)