I approach this first race of the year with some apprehension, due to a knee injury I picked up three months previous I had done virtually no training and was somewhat concerned on how I would cope with running the 1o miles.

The day started out cold, damp and foggy, it took me about an hour to travel the distance to Canterbury, where I found a parking space and walked to the meeting hall where I picked up my race number and timing chip. Once all was attached I handed my bag into the bag check in, and then I had about 45 minutes before the start of the race.

With 10 minutes to a go I quickly went to the loo (turns out not so quickly as the queue was horrendous, as it is in these events).I then proceeded to the start line, where I joined all the other runners, I was towards the back, as I was only concerned with finishing and not on the time.

The race started well, and we ran through the normal streets before going into the more rural areas, across farm land, and country lanes. It continued to be foggy and damp throughout the race however this did not dampen my spirits and I continued to plod away the miles reaching ever closer to the finish line.

On races in excess of 10k I normally take some gels (SIS) every 2 miles, this seemed to work on Sittingbourne 10 mile race with great success, but today it just wasn’t having any benefit so I carried on ticking off the miles. My finishing time for this event was 1hour 45 minutes which is 7 minutes off my PB, I am fairly o.k. with this time as I did not really do any training.

I am constantly amazed on how well organised these races are, there was a lot of support around the course by the marshals and spectator’s, it does wonders for your self esteem when you hear people cheering your name “Come on Sean” and “your nearly there”. I also have to say that the official photos seemed to be taken most of the way around the course, which was a surprise as you normally get one half way around and then at the end.

All in all a good day out.