Photograph Quiz:
Photo no. 153:- Answer => Colworth Science Park.
Dear Blog,
So it was three days in Sharnbrook, or more precisely, Colworth Science Park. Athletic bargain of 2013???? => at a time of spiralling entry fees for running races and Rip Offs by Commercial Promoters with a giv us ye money and have a bag of tat when you’ve finished guv, it is amazing that a small running club like Colworth Striders can provide three races in three days with a full set of awards for each race as well as awards for the three day Challange with free camping for the runners’ family with 24 hour hot showers and changing, a bar-b-q, a bar, kids’ Fun Runs, a huge marquee for prize giving each day, free drinks all weekend both cans and bottles for thirty quids. THIRTY. Three nought. 30. Blog, I kid you not.
Friday night:- about 400 finishers in the 5 mile (8 kilometres Blog) which incorporated the first leg of the Colworth Challenge, a marathon race split into three sections over three days, each leg being a different distance, all off road. Weather hot and sticky, country and path around the Colworth Science Park area. Sound grim but it is acres and acres of country near the small village of Sharnbrook, based on the former RAF Podington air field, used by the USSAF in the last war to fly their B-17 bombers on raids in Europe. First home was Damian Carr of Godiva Harriers. My elder daughter was pleased with her run. Her two kids were at the finish to greet her.
Saturday lunchtime:- the 8 mile trail run (13 kilometres Blog) on a dog legged course mostly on an out and back bridle way after a country start, mostly through woody areas. Weather overcast but pleasant. Damian again won but slit underneath his foot badly as he decided to race in spiked shoes (!!!!) which did not stay in one piece, an individual spike piecing the big toe. Now this is interesting because the First Aid treated him at the end of the race and gave him medical advice, about procedures of care, visiting A & E, tetanus injections etc., but I pointed out to him later, that having spent some few years lecturing in Red Cross, my talks, when given to sports people, I always gave the accredited medical procedures and protocol, but then I used to add unofficially, what an experienced athlete (aka ME) would do in the same set of circumstances. Take a bloody toe nail for example. There is the accepted medical treatment and there is my way, as Frank might say; in fact he did on more than one occasion! And my way works a whole lot quicker than following medical advice with the consequence that little or no time is lost from training, pain or no pain. Blister strategy is another case of a difference in approach. And Achilles tendons … the days and weeks and months I see athletes waste with Achilles problems when a simple solution is on hand. But medicine knows what to do??????? A couple of hundred finished. My daughter improved her overall standing. My grandchildren were at the finish to greet her.
Sunday morning:- the half marathon (half marathon to you Blog). Two laps of trail around the paths in the area. Paths that go nowhere; concrete pathways that used to go to ammunition dumps when the aerodrome was in use, before, during and up to 1961. The race was accompanied by the deafening roar of drag racing on the Santa Pod racetrack, the former runway of the air base. And I do meaning deafening Blog with a capital ‘D’. The half marathon race ran parallel to the runway strip but thankfully, the drag races only last for four seconds max; yes Blog, 4 seconds, I kid you not!! And there is quite a gap between races so it is nowhere near as bad as it sounds (geddit?? Bad as it sounds – deafening noise- oh don’t bother then Blog) Like the ‘Science Park’, it sounds futuristic but it isn’t. The Science Park is the Unilever’s global Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre whose scientists underpin consumer safety, environmental safety, occupational safety and sustainability initiatives worldwide. And we were camping next to it! Colworth is one of Unilever’s two main R&D centres in the UK. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I saw not one single mutant behind the high razor wire fence all weekend. And the apples that glowed in the dark were just as tasty as the blue potatoes and green chicken we had at the bar-b-q. Weather overcast and warm, ideal for running. Damian Carr of the Coventry Godiva Harriers and Hi-Tec team again won comfortably, thereby securing his fifth Colworth title in eight or nine years. My elder daughter finished the race, her second half marathon, only a few minutes slower than her debut at the half marathon and is now thinking of racing (not ‘doing’) a marathon. And the kids couldn’t be arsed to be there at the finish for her … two races in two days is fair enough, but three in three? You see one race finish, then two … and they all look just the same!!! There are big ones, there are small ones, there are short ones and there are longer ones, but they all have lots of runners and they all look just the same. Enough is enough for a ten and seven years old when there are places to explore.
After the awards ceremony, everyone was unpitching their tents, packing up and most families were nearly finished when it RAINED with a capital ‘R’. Blog I kid you not. It chucked it down. What incredible timing. So another good piece of organisation by Colworth Striders.
Same place, same time, same distance next year??? Seeya!
Colin
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