With not so many local races on, our members took to going further afield. On the weekend of 24/25 August two very different races were being run, approximately 1100 miles apart with Nathalie Hooper running the Reykjavik Half Marathon and Vicky Tapp the Severn Bridge 10k.
In her own words, Nathalie describes the day of the race:
It felt very odd packing winter clothes in August, but as I found out, I’d need them for my trip to Iceland to run the 40th Reykjavik Half Marathon. On the morning of Saturday 24th August, I made my way to the start area thinking 8am for an 8.40 start was probably a bit late. But no, there was hardly any runners there and I began to wonder if I was in the right place. At least there were no queues for the toilets as usual. Looking around at the bib numbers that had country flags on, I could see that most of us were international. The Icelandic people seemed very relaxed about the whole thing and turned up 10 mins before the start!
I made my way to the start pen and tried not to let the prerace nerves get to me. The race was started by the first women to win the Reykjavik marathon 40 years ago. It was a bit crowded at the start which stopped me from shooting off too fast and then I got into a comfortable pace. Going through the residential streets of Reykjavik was amazing. It seemed everyone was out playing music at a deafening volume or playing in bands on the streets. This created the most brilliant atmosphere.
We carried on running through the town and then we turned a corner to the most brilliant view down towards the sea with the mountains in the background. Luckily the 40mph gale force winds we’d had during the week had subsided and it couldn’t have been more perfect. The road along the sea went on for miles and spectators became scarce, so I had to just trust in the training and believe I could do it.
Unusually, apart from the odd one, there were no kilometre markers on the route. I found this quite refreshing and as the route headed back towards the city and more people lined the route, I knew there was not long to go. I spotted the 21km sign and then put everything I had left to get to the finish. The roar from the crowds was so motivating. I could see the finish gantry with the time overhead and with one last push crossed the line with a time of 1:51:19 giving me a half marathon PB.
It seems Vicky had strong winds on her 10k run across the ‘old’ Severn
Bridge starting on the Welsh side. This didn’t stop her putting in fantastic run coming in 4th woman and 3rd in her age category.
On the 1st September Rachel Bodsworth and John Scaife took part in The Big Half. This flattish race weaves through London from Tower Bridge over the Thames to the Cutty Sark.
On the same day Stuart Hunt was running the tough Framlingham 10k, home to the ‘Castle on the Hill’. This is a two lap course and Stuart did mention that he did not enjoy that hill!
Well done Joel Bamsey who took part in the AJ Great North Run. A fantastic race to take
part in along with 60,000 other runners!
Finally, Adam Chamberlin was not put off running in the Suffolk Coastal Path 50k last year on the hottest day of the year and so went back to give it another bash this year. With an amazing time of 4hrs 35mins, he crossed the finish line in 22nd place!
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