Grimsby 10k 2021







 Race date: Sunday, 18 July 2021

Lord this was hot. While the rest of the world is baking, burning or being washed away, northern England is dealing with the local equivalent of extreme weather: several days' sunshine in a row. 

The Grimsby 10k is organised by Tape2Tape, who also organise the North Lincs half. Both races are flattish and ought to be fast, but I always end up overheating.


Having not read the instructions properly I didn't realise this was a staged start, so I turned up at my usual too-early time only to discover I actually had an extra 42 minutes to waste. I went for a nice stroll round Grimsby, which has some smashing (and smashed) brick buildings.

Having already become slightly over-warm, I retreated to the multistorey, slathered myself in factor 50 and waited for my turn. 

Although we had start times, the start was actually a rolling one. You walk to the start line, realise there's no "start" moment, run across the line and you're off!

The course itself hasn't changed since last time (though there was no timed mile), and nor had my "don't look at the watch, just try to hold your pace" tactics. And nor had the weird optical illusion that the long straight bit is a hill. It was just that the pace was half a minute per km slower this time because of the heat. The marshals must have been really suffering, and so was at least one runner (marshals got to her very fast. Tape2Tape have bike marshals going round the course in both directions.) The good people of Grimsby properly rose to the occasion though, turning out en masse with water pistols, hosepipes and sprinklers in the residential section, so the first 3km was like running through a fine mist.

The end arrived, just as my legs were giving up hope, and after I picked up my goody bag (massive medal!) I headed to the ice cream van for a two-scoop cone. I recommend mint choc chip for cooling down.

The race was won by Lewis Jagger (Sheffield & Dearne) in 31:29 and Elizabeth McTernan (Cleethorpes & District AC) in 34:26. I finished 349th of 1686, in 49:15. That's a lot slower than last time, but even though last time was hot, it wasn't 30C hot. My splits were very consistent, though I slipped in the last 3km. If only this were a spring or autumn race!

Full results: https://resultsbase.net/event/5564/results

 

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