Sunday the 18th of May saw a small team of two make our way over to Manvers Lake at Dearne Valley for their trail 10k, hosted in aid of Rotherham Hospice. Given the sweltering temperatures of the last two weeks we were please to experience a cooler morning, and gathered excitedly by race HQ (the boat house) for our race briefing. Being somewhat hungover following a night of Eurovision related fun and frivolity the fact that I had ordered a race t-shirt had completely escaped me, but I was delighted to be handed a terrifically snazzy orange number, emblazoned with the hospice logo. A very sneaky shimmy off of the club t-shirt from beneath a giant fleece allowed me to pin my race number rather more squarely on the front than I usually do, although I then had to strip back off to don club colours again. No matter, the Manvers crowd dutifully averted their eyes. Nice one, team.
A robust and informative race briefing followed and we shuttled towards the starting pen, in sight of the boat house. Having spent the previous day assuring fellow competitors that road shoes would be ‘absolutely fine’, I was horrified to discover the first km was over gravel, grass, and a rocky stretch featuring many rabbit holes. Fantastic. Mercifully the course was essentially flat throughout, with only 40 metres or so of elevation across the whole thing. The race photographers that were spotted were dealt a series of increasingly pathetic heel clicks, and the leaping and general pratting around was threatening to have last night’s booze revisit me, so I did 3 and left it sensibly at that.
A small brain fart at the 7km mark where I devoured a plastic cup of water and promptly slammed it back on the table, before spotting a nice marshal with a bin bag collecting empties some 30 metres down the path. Not wanting some poor runner to have my germ riddled and slobbery cup I headed back to the table to retrieve it, and popped it in its proper place for recycling (do I get green environmental brownie points?). Other marshals were especially cheery, and I gratefully took on board one jelly baby and two percy pigs as I panted my way around the lake. A pair of absolutely gorgeous and enthusiastic cheerleaders were on hand with pom poms and music to see us sprint onto the final straight.
Nicola smashed her way over the line in 57:40, and I managed to hop over in 52:47. Bacon sarnies, a wobbly picnic table and a good old pat on the back ensued. Lots of nice ducks, geese and some VERY cute goslings provided adequate post-race entertainment. If you like local, like flat, like a bit of trail and like a good cause, then the Dearne Valley 10k at Manvers is for you.
