A heavy shower on the drive through to the start certainly served to heighten the senses and think about exactly what was in store for race 6 of the 2024 Grand Prix.
Having never ran it before, it would all be new to me this year and all I knew was that there was a big downhill at the start, the remainder was ‘to be discovered’.
Due to being a little later than planned, the car park was busy however the friendly marshal just said ‘find a place on the grass if you can’ so that is what I did then off to the pub (I mean HQ) for number collection with a few friendly shouts from fellow BRC on the way.
Number collected and pinned, it was a walk across the railway bridge and a jog up that long hill to the start line. The little devil in my head shouting ‘do not overcook the downhill at the start and blow up halfway through!!’. Anyway, start reached and some chats ensued, banter mainly and a bit of encouragement, and a little bit of airtime with Al Pepper although some ran for cover when he arrived….
After what seemed like 20 photo attempts to get the whole BRC contingent (still don’t think we got everyone), time to line up on the start line and await the gun.
Off we set down the hill, controlled, and through the first km, we’ll soon find out if it was controlled enough……the course was quite nice, having cycled those roads many times, I knew there would be a couple of short sharp inclines but they came and went and all seemed to be going well to halfway.
Second half began to get a bit hard, some ‘open’ sections where the wind caught you and some inclines in the trees but overall quite a nice route, watch the footing on the bridge though, choose your line and stick to it… but enough strength remaining at the end to post a good time (40:40 if you watch Al peppers video hehe!!) and the start must have been controlled enough (thank goodness.)
A nice addition to the 2024 GP for me, really enjoyed the run, not a massive queue for me at the pie ‘n’ pea distribution although I did hear that some people’s experience was slightly different after the race unfortunately….
Would defo recommend the race, not the easiest of 10k’s but defo not the hardest either. Well done to all that ran and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
The full results can be found HERE