Results for the Seven@Severn, 07-Jul-2015

Jamie and I wondered how many runners there would be as we travelled on country roads to the race. A 7pm start on a Tuesday evening over a distance of 7km around Draycote Water weighed up against extensive advertising (I had two flyers in my boot) and the reliability of runners to toe a start line in search of a PB (pretty much guaranteed over this distance) and that post-race high. The numbers of cars as we neared the venue told us that the advertising and runners’ will had won out.

We ambled (part of our warm-up) out of the car park, joined the queue and learnt three things: there were other Sphinxies, we were in the wrong queue and one of the race organisers/helpers was a bit of a character. Hywel Davies signed up just ahead of us so I pointed out that he is fast. We then wondered where the start would be and went for a short warm-up; unfortunately for me there was no Weedon-esque twang for Jamie’s hip.

We joined the growing numbers that were awaiting the start when the aforementioned race helper character started to test the megaphone, setting off the siren setting in the process. Once he’d mastered this technological hiccup he mingled with the expectant runners and asked ‘What’s this race called?’ before announcing, via the megaphone, the race name (which he liked), that he’d never been there before and that the race start was the other side of the visitor centre. As he led us around the back of the building he referred to himself as The Pied Piper but then had to ask the bike-riding Race Organiser where the start actually was. Another quarter of a mile walk and we were there, whereupon the megaphone character wished us well and instructed us to talk to each other.

Off we went with a lead group of 10 or so with Hywel seemingly biding his time. Jamie worked his way up to this group and actually held the lead after half a mile, at which point Hywel put the hammer down and disappeared into the distance.

The first half of the race was shelter from the wind and was very hot; the second half was into a strong headwind, especially the home straight that seemed to go on forever. All in all it was an enjoyable race with a medal, t-shirt and goody bag. Well done to Jamie for pulling clear at the end to finish as first Sphinx, and to all the other Sphinx runners.

Results:

http://www.theraceorganiser.com/results.html