Road racing on a Saturday - making a comeback?

I used to do a lot of road races. That was because a lot of them were on a Saturday, meaning I could still orienteer on a Sunday. That is, the long established races were usually on Saturdays - the young 'whippersnapper' races which sprang up during the 80's running boom tended to be on Sunday.

As the 90's progressed, a lot of the traditional races were either killed off due to police opposition (Windermere to Kendal 10 being a typical example) or moved to a Sunday.

Last Saturday, 3 June, I took part in the Kikby Malzeard 10k, based at a small village near Ripon, and part of the Black Sheep Brewery race series. There was a supporting 2km fun run, which appeared to have an excellent turnout, plus the 10k with nearly 200 runners.

Not a bad route, undulating and winding, around quiet country lanes - a mile and a half out, round in a big circle, then retrace you steps to the finish. The biggish climb between 5 and 5 1/2 miles ended at the village cemetary! A killer of a climb? Maybe not, but save something for the last mile through the village!

The observant reader will have noted that I was running a 10km race, but keep referring to miles. Now I know I have a tendancy to a slow start, but 6.14 for the 1st km? It wasn't that uphill, surely! No, just that the organisers had put out mile markers!

Quite a good position (15th), but 40.05? Well, it was HOT, damned hot!! 28C on my car's thermometer. And not very windy. My excuse, and I'm sticking to it!!

It's great to run a race outside of your home patch and still bump into people you know - Harry D and Liz, Brian M and Alison R. Pleased to beat Alison and Brian - couldn't get anywhere near Harry. But then he's virtually given up 'O' to concentrate on road running! Me, I'm just a jack-of-all-trades, and master of none!

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