As the penultimate race of the 2023 season this was the last chance to get an above 10-mile score in.
After a rather wet and windy start to the weekend on Friday night the sun was shining down on the participants in Bamburgh early Sunday morning, it was a tad chilly though.
As per usual I got there nice and early with Karl just after 8:15, and I managed to nab one of the free carparking spaces around the village green so that was a good start!
We walked down to registration for our numbers at the Cricket club pavilion and then mooched around until it was time to head towards the start.
As per usual for a run Nation race we started late, whilst in part due to an ambulance need to make its way through us.
In total there were 20 BRC’ers at the start and we all headed off down the flat part of the route back into the village, from there it was a steady climb up to the 2-mile point and then the course levelled off a little. After a little rise about 3.5 mile in there was a lovely mostly downhill section down to 7 miles. From this point till 9 it was mostly flat with the odd little rise. From mile 9 the route started to climb again till mile 11 then I thought that was it for the uphill, unfortunately not, as there was one more at 11.5 then it was a final run down to the finish.
From a results point of view there were some fantastic performances on the day with Michal Stott winning the overall race in a fantastic time of 1:13:28. Gary Wier also smashed it with a 1:25:42 and was first back in his age category with Karl Bryce not far behind with a PB 1:26:25. Sandra Watson was also first back in her age category with a 1:42:04. There were also PB’s from Luke, Martin and Stephen.
From a personal point of view I had a decent run, whilst not vying for GP honours I was pleased with my 1:37 time.
And last, but very much not least, was the fab achievement by Andy Patchett who completed his 100th ½ marathon challenge in memory of his mate Glen and Nic’s son Patrick. Well done mate.
Oh, and one last thing I must mention is, it shouldn’t be called Castles as I never saw more than 1! just saying 😊.
All the best
Steve D