Race Time – 01:04:47. The race was actually 6.7 miles. So Strava put my 10k (6.2 miles) distance at 00:58:41.

Breakfast – I had two strips of pork belly, with a sliced sweet potato that I then fried in butter. Washed down with 500ml of water.

Parking – It was a 1h45m drive. We arrived into Bamburgh on time. The parking was well sign posted. The 10k was the last race to register so all the other racers would have been parked already. Yet the parking was easy and ample.

Registration – Our time slot was between 9:45 – 10:30am, inside the castle grounds. The registration point was well sign posted and there was plenty of staff about to point you in the right direction. They wrote your number on your hand, attached a timing chip to your wrist, and gave you your number to safety pin to yourself. The only downside here was that the queue for the registration overlapped with the toilets, which meant a bit of congestion.

Meeting – The meeting was at 11am. So there was a bit of waiting about beforehand, and there wasn’t much to do. The meeting was light hearted and informative.

Getting to the Start – After the meeting there was a  bit of time for a loo break. Then you were shown to the buses. They drove you to the start in Beadnal. There were toilets at the car park too. They walked you from the car park, to the beach, then about 500m down the beach to the start. Everything went smoothly.

The Race – Wow what a beautiful place to run. I would say for a least 6 miles of the 6.7 miles, you could see the sea or were right next to it. You started off in the soft sand, but everyone soon ran down to the hard sand next to the water. Then you came off the beach and ran through Beadnal, back onto the beach, and then through Seahouses. The next bit of the run was probably the most boring part, a single track path which also had the general public on. However you were soon back onto the beach, and what an amazing beach it is. I am guessing the last 2-2.5miles was on the beach, with Bamburgh castle in the foreground. It was really tough but stunning. The hardest bit of the race was right at the end, you have to come off beach and head through the dunes to the castle. Which is all up hill, and an absolute killer. I would guess 70% of the run was on beaches, and there were a few tricky parts where you were on rocks. I gave my toe a right whacking, I have a lovely bruise on my toe as a souvenir!!!

Conclusion – A great little event. If its on next year, I think I will do the Half or Full Marathon. I was happy with my performance. My average pace was 9:32 minutes per mile. I was close to this pace throughout, and felt comfortable at it. I could have easily done a couple of extra miles. However anytime I tried to increase the pace past this I struggled, and had to come back down to the pace I was comfortable with.

N.B – I wore my Skins Compression Tights for the first time. They were great. I will do a full review of them in due course.

https://www.skins.net/uk/dnamic-thermal-mens-long-tights.html

Photo credits: http://theinformalphotoco.com

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