I hadn’t decided to run the Frenchay 10k until I found out that a number of Bristol & Westers were running it over cake following parkrun yesterday. I got there nice and early to make sure there was still a space for me as an on the day entrant, then retreated to my car with my knitting until about 20 minutes before the race started.

A bit of a chat before the start and then we were off, with a lap around the campus before heading off around Frenchay. I had heard that the course was a bit hilly, but hadn’t looked at a map. The worst part for me was running over a bridge, which I struggle with due to vertigo, but once that was over it was just slogging it down and up the hills. I tried to keep an eye on Becci who was consistently about 100m ahead of me. At one point I managed to close the gap to around 20m but after the last downhill she got away from me. Then it was the final 500m slog up the last hill and over the timing mats.

Live results were available in race HQ (the student union) and I was very pleased with my chip time of 47:01 (within a minute of my current 10k pb, but that was over a flat course) and provisionally position of 86th out of 420 (though Becci was missing from the results so that will push me down to 87th). That put me as 4th in my age category (5th once Becci’s added in) and 8th lady.

Instead of medals we got a mug and a wristband. I think I will be hanging the wristband from the medal hanger.

UPDATE: They have found a few missing people in the results and I am now 107th out of 509 and 5th in my age category (still 8th lady).