Yateley 10km – “to talk or not to talk”

Plenty of signs marking out the race start from the outskirts of Yateley through to the well marshalled car park where only the start of a very impressive event. On the down side the high volume of competitors means some car parks are a good 5 minute walk from the start of the event, more of a problem for some olders supporters who would have found the walk difficult.

The Centre used to hold the event was well arranged and the large number of volunteers meant the registration process (picking up your race number and timing chip) was very quick and had plenty of friendly helpers.

With over 860 of the originally entered 1000 competitors (the full allowable capacity) at the start it was great to see so many runners. The event starts and finishes on the playing fields, which is also the only tricky part of the event with a very muddy wet area shortly after the start as you headed down the playing field and bend round towards the road. The concern would be for the condition of the ground after all 860 people had trampled over it at the start and then attempt to go through it after 10km. The remainder of the course was great and obviously the key reason for the races popularity. It’s a particularly flat course all on roads with only a few small inclines and seemingly long gentle downward slopes.

Great water and sponge stops from 5km marker onwards all well manned with friendly volunteers.

Now to talk or not to talk – as I’ve mentioned so many times before I love to meet people and have a chat while running round and enjoying the scenery. Obviously when doing a half marathon or longer you normally end up running with people of the same speed and generally people are forward in chatting to pass the time or at least get their minds of the pain their in. Meanwhile it’s very different in a 10km and almost impossible in a 5km.

In a 5km race people will literally sprint of the start line and attempt to keep that pass up based on how much oxygen they can get into their lungs – therefore ruling out any time or ability for general chit chat or social niceties. Meanwhile a 10km does require a careful balance – as such I try not to start talking unless someone else makes the effort too in this length of race. The only problem on this occasion was that I found myself running with someone else running with a CF Trust running vest on (Matt). I therefore continued to run at his pace to either give him the opportunity to talk or at least for us to come in together. Meanwhile the course is not run on closed of roads therefore in some cases you have to run in single file and then with the volume of people it meant we got separated – I can only hope he reads this and I wish him well in his future runs for the CF Trust.

Meanwhile I found a competitive runner from Datchet Dashers who was up for a sprint over the last few hundred meters at which point we crossed the line together – a great way to finish an event and it meant we both finished 10 or 20 seconds faster than we would have, even if we where a little muddier from the state of the field!

The event was then completed well with a great quality medal and refreshments from the helpers in the finishing area.

The Website results do not get published that soon after the events but this is compensated for by a timely text shortly after finishing giving you details of your time and finishing position.

A great event - a definite series to enter next year.