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| At the Spa, Scarborough |
The FSM's Own County
Last year the Scarborough "Yorkshire Coast" 10k battled it out with the Wetherby "A Cracking Little Yorkshire Run" 10k as my favourite race, so as you can imagine, I was really looking forward to this year. It never fails to amuse everyone to run a race sponsored by McCain. Yes, that McCain- as in frozen chips and you receive a money off coupon for them in your race pack. No, I am not joking.Being from Yorkshire, Scarborough holds a special place in my heart. I have happy memories of family trips up the coast to sit in the old Ford Escort estate warming our freezing hands on cups of tea from a flask while we watched the rain lashing the windscreen. Then we'd wander up the front, huddled deep in to our waterproofs and stick £3 worth of 2p's in to a machine to win a plastic dinosaur and a Take That badge.
I fondly remember discovering the hologram museum on the front and being totally fascinated by it. Ahhhhh, more innocent times before iPads, blogs and playstations.
Scarborough is one of the proudest of Yorkshire towns, desperately clinging on to its former glory and it still retains plenty. Here's the Grade II listed Grand hotel under which we ran.
Although somewhat faded, it has a wonderful history and dominates the south bay. Moving along the front, the race route passes the grade II listed Rotunda museum of geology, and after the race we visited this little gem which has a couple of really amazing exhibits including a totally unique dinosaur skeleton!
But anyway, back to the race.
The race starts at the Spa, yet another grade II listed building and what a place to start! How many races can boast somewhere so luxurious to keep warm in before the kick off? The very efficient bag drop is also in the building along with free post and pre run massages.And guess what? There are lots of toilets in the spa! Sadly, the main men's toilets had 2 of the 4 stalls out of order, but the queue didn't take too long and later I discovered another set of toilets that weren't busy at all.
Last year was the first year I had managed to run in Scarborough with a DNS the year before due to injury and I had really loved the experience of the race despite not running well. There is a large balcony area on top of the Spa where all the dignities gathered and also a band. I was beginning to think I dreamt that the 2012 race was started by Perry Shakes-Drayton so I looked it up and thankfully all the blows I've taken to the head over the years haven't sent me totally wappy as she did. The band had been fantastic and warmed the crowd up better than any amount of bouncing about to dance music ever has at any other race. The top of the Spa looked like a really wonderful party.
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| This was at the end- You can tell by the yellow shirts |
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| That's the balcony I mentioned- last year it was heaving with people having a great time. |
The race had expanded a little with 1500 signing up compared to 1200 last year which I think is the perfect amount. It's a very laid back affair so I was able to wander out only a few minutes before the hooter and still make my way very close to the start.
At the front the amazing paralympian Wondiye Fikre Indeldu was warming up. He has won a couple of the 10k's I have entered this year including York. I resisted the urge to try to get my photo taken with him as I didn't want to ruin his pre-race ritual.
Oddly, it felt like a long time since I had run in a 10k race, even though it was actually less than 2 months ago. The week after was the Great North run, then the Oslo marathon, then two weeks after that the Ian Hodgson mountain relay in which I suffered the injuries I am still battling with. My knee has not been right since and I have only been running once or twice a week for the last month. Still, I didn't think I would have lost much fitness so was going out aiming to break my 10k PB and come in under 39 minutes.
To start the race there was a countdown, then the mayor of Scarborough -no less- set us off and I went out fast. Maybe too fast.
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| If you'd been standing at the Rotunda with this view at race time you'd have seen the field running through here. |
Suffering From Terrible Wind
The first kilometre went by at under 38 minute pace which I held until the 3rd k when it started to go wrong. We knew the wind was going to be a factor this year and it proved to be a big factor. As we left the south bay and rounded the headland we hit the cobbled stretch and were blasted in the face by the wind. At this point my lungs started to give me problems feeling like they were being scrubbed with a pan scourer. At times I had a metallic taste in my mouth. Not good.Heading towards the north bay it felt good that I could still see the leaders not too far in front, but the gusting wind, although not gale force by any means, was sapping in strength and spirit. Still, I consoled myself with the thought that it would be at our backs on the way back. Little did I know....
By the time we hit the turn off for the little loop around the park, I was struggling and my pace was dropping off. The turnaround point is a little over halfway and I was really looking forward to some wind at my back, but bizarrely, it never materialised. At the point where the wind had been strongest on the way out at our faces, on the return leg....... it was at our faces again. I am at a loss to explain this! We got all of about 30 seconds with a gentle breeze at our backs the whole way despite the out-and-back route. Just before we turned off for the park the leaders flew past and I gave them a cheer and a clap.
As we made our way back to the start line I watched my pace slowing. I already knew there was going to be no PB on the day, so I focussed on keeping under 40 minutes, but by the time the headland came up again and the wind started to push me back, I knew even that was gone.
The race passed back through the busiest area of the seafront again and the crowds cheering gave a real boost, but not enough to make me go faster. Last year I had finished the final k pretty quickly but this year I had nothing in me. I plodded in with my slowest kilometre of the day not even bothering with a push towards the end; the PB was gone and even the sub 40 was gone by a long way. I had finished about 30 seconds quicker than last year, but I had thought myself in much better shape, and in wetherby I had gone 2.5 minutes quicker on a multi terrain race. So not a great time at all. Ah well, there's much more to the Scarborough 10k than a fast, flat PB course.
Crossing the line I suddenly felt nauseous as I had done at the same race last year. Maybe it's something to do with sea air?
Afterwards I really enjoyed what the race has to offer. The band were banging out what I believe the kids these days are calling "Cracking choons" and they launched into Fleetward Mac's "The chain" soon after I finished. (That's the formula one song if you don't know) I picked up my bottle of water and banana that helped take away the nausea and meant that I didn't have the indignity of heaving over the sea front.
We also managed to catch the last few people making their way down the finishing straight.
There's no medal for the race but you do receive a pen, and the best hi-viz shirt I've ever received, which isn't a huge compliment given my hatred of hi-viz, but I do like this shirt. Foot prints in the sand- perfect for Scarborough.
Now the delights of Scarborough lay before us to recover in. So we headed off to the calf vegan cafe as Rebecca has a bit of a thing for cows and is also a lapsed vegetarian.
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