John Fraser 10

I would have liked to have ran another half marathon today but for various reasons that wasn’t happening. Races were either full, too far away or I had missed the closing date due to being away. So today I drop down to 10 miles and the John Fraser 10 which is a jaunt around the Leicestershire countryside from a place called Countesthorpe. I’d heard of the race but I had to look Countesthorpe up on the map because I’d never heard of it despite its close proximity to Leicester itself.

Race HQ was at the local college before they took us out on to the road for the start where 500 or so of us caused quite a traffic management problem. L is supporting this morning, saving her injuries from further jarring ahead of Budapest next weekend.

The route was pretty much how I like them, pretty dull. It was an out and back with a loop on the end through countryside, mainly on country roads with a single track tarmac section which wasn’t used by traffic. It was all very well marshalled and with plenty of drinks stations (in cups). One thing it wasn’t though was flat. You were either climbing a hill or descending one. None of the hills on their own were particularly evil, it was just that there was barely a flat piece of road in the whole 10 miles.

I didn’t start particularly fast and as the terrain eventually took its toll, there wasn’t much chance of improving on that. So my finishing time of 1:18 is very much on the slow side.