Maidenhead 10 miles Report, by Nick Hardwick
Maidenhead 10 – Friday 30th March 2018
A new race for me personally and after some child minding juggling was off with a full van load of other keen early rises. The weather, it being a bank holiday was due to be completely erratic and lugging round a bag with a complete change of clothes did feel slightly over prepared. After finding the race location which was a business park on the outskirts of maidenhead, we joined the snaky queue to pick up our race numbers, once sorted it was to join another long snaky queue for the mandatory toilet stop. Once ready and warmed up nicely(leg muscles anyway) we were notified of a fifteen minute delay for the start which initiated another queue for the toilet, more jogging up and down or mainly just pre-race chatting.
Once started it was a lap of the business park then out onto Westacott Way, the entrance road we’d come in on, after about a mile we did an abrupt turn around and came back to do another lap of the business park (again). Out again along said same road and a sharp left turn onto a concrete farm track skirting some fields, at this turn our illustrious PM Theresa May who volunteers her services every year was helpfully pointing the way ahead. This part of the course which constituted the main bulk of the mileage was the most enjoyable as it passed through small villages, country lanes and the outskirts of White Waltham, before looping round towards the start.
The course re-joined Westtacott Way with the 9 mile marker just ahead, just in case we’d forgotten what it looked like we had a final three quarter lap of the business park to do before the last sprint in. A mighty fine selection of liquids, fruit and chocolate bars awaited the finishers which was greedily appreciated.
A big well done to the runners still on the course as the heavens opened and it being a bank holiday poured it down.
From a small field of Eynsham runners we had Robert Storey coming in at a storming 82nd place, with good back up form Richard Hume and Ben Pollard., Richard gaining a PB with joker played.
Injuries, illnesses and various other factors contributed to a small turnout, but as with the Cotswold Classic later in the season, running a ten miler race has a different feel to it and is definitely recommended. Facilities wise, with a little more forward thinking there needn’t have been long unnecessary queues to pick up numbers and use the lavatories, plus its best not mention the wait to get out of the car-park(which thankfully there was dry gear from the giant bag to get changed into!!)
