A bright, sunny, dry Sunday in November, saw Matt and I travelling to the Long Sutton 10k organised by Sublime Racing. Starting and finishing at the Peele Community College in Long Sutton, the race promised a flat 10k with an almost guaranteed pb potential, something I’m sure Matt was far more excited about than me! 

 

The race was organised by runners for runners and certainly didn’t disappoint. A start time of 10am was a big bonus, meaning that we were home, showered and with a hearty brunch consumed whilst still leaving time for email answering, housework, diy jobs and some serious tv time before the sun had gone down.

 

From start to finish the race showed thoughtful organisation: plenty of parking, good facilities (thank you Peele Community College), faultless timing via a great RFID system, superb and enthusiastic marshalling and a course that was in fact true to its claims of being flat. Oh and not to forget, for just £16 we got a technical t-shirt, a medal and a goodie bag - superb!

 

Both Matt and I thoroughly enjoyed the run, considering it was on roads that were not closed to traffic, other road users were very patient and considerate and the marshalls were fantastic; really encouraging and situated at the right points. If I have one niggle, it would be the use of water in bottles at the two water stations.... a nice touch you might argue, but in a 10k race much water was wasted and in an age where plastic is becoming a dire scourge, a better way of dispensing water at races is badly needed, especially for a relatively short run in cool conditions.

 

Overall, this was an excellently organised and presented race that rightly attracted over 500 runners from a wide variety of running clubs in addition to unaffiliated runners. It’s definitely one that we will both run again and we’ll be aiming for pb’s next time!