The alarm of waking on the Saturday morning to see a covering of snow across roof, tree, and tarmac had turned to relative relief 24 hours later when I awoke to no fresh falls of snow and the dusting of the previous night in scarce evidence on the ground. In short, at least the City of Hull AC’s Ferriby 10 race wasn’t going to be called off due to adverse weather conditions. Indeed, seasoned veterans might have said that conditions were perfect for distance running, sunny, clear, calm but rather chilly. This relative beneficence from the Gods might explain why some excellent times were set, with Barracuda’s Rob Snaith, Gregan Clarkson and Steve Coates leading the way, all going under the hour mark and to judge by his remarks on Facebook, Steve for one was elated with his time of 58.22. The elements were kind to me as well, helping me to come in just over 75 minutes, a time I was delighted with.

Turning up at the scenic location of Skidby windmill 30 mins before race start, I almost began to think that I had got the wrong day and wondered where the 500 or so (491 finally made it to the end) runners were hiding, so sparse were those warming up. This illusion was soon dispelled with the appearance of the finish gantry and a few more competitors. However, even with just under 10 minutes to go before the start, there still seemed to be a large deficit on the 500; then I went for a final pee behind a bush, came back and as if from nowhere the road leading up to the starting position was thronged with leggings, running vests and luminous gloves. Where had they all come from?

I crabbed my way up there, swiftly realising that I really should invest in a decent long sleeved running vest as the thermal t-shirt I was wearing (and nobody else seemed to have anything remotely similar!) meant I spent the first few miles with cold arms. This was also the result of having what wind there was coming straight towards us, and by 4 miles into the race i.e. by the time we had left Little Weighton far behind, most of my body felt generally comfortable in terms of its internal heating balances. I speculated whether the same could be said of the various competitors I saw donning woolly hats, not something I could ever be comfortable with.

Set in the middle of the Wolds, the course was predictably undulating, though apart from the final hill, I didn’t find either descents or ascents particularly onerous. It probably helped that in general the first half of the course saw a gentle rise in the slope whereas the second five, particularly coming down through Raywell and then the long descent into Eppleworth proved easy running with a slight downward gradient. Water was provided half way but it wasn’t really the sort of day when you needed to take on much water and after a couple of sips I decided that it was proving slower and less productive to try to drink the water and run at the same time compared to any advantage I was likely to get from taking on fluids.

Marshalls, I assume from the club, were great throughout the course, offering encouragement at every stage –some people find this doesn’t affect them much, but for me it’s a marvellous boost. Thinking more generally about the race’s organisation, it would be difficult to find fault and it was obviously an operation that had been honed down the years. I liked the design of the t-shirt with the course’s route mapped out on it, but to be honest, as someone whose loathe to throw away clothes of any description, my wardrobe is starting to groan a bit under the weight of event t-shirts and I now look forward to event freebies which offer more practical uses – the best from recent events include chain lube and triathlon magazines. So, perhaps a bit more imagination needed in the gift department!

Whilst on ideas, another thing which occurred to me to encourage more support from families, as well as boost tourism for the East Riding, would be for the local Council (East Riding) to put on a series of activities/events based around the windmill there. This is an excellent facility and my family had a wonderful time going around it for the hour or so I was away and when there was obviously nothing to see in terms of competition. Why doesn’t the Council work with the City of Hull AC to put on a series of workshops for families based around the themes of the mill? In this way, competitors might be more tempted to bring their families along (I noticed that there was a preponderance of the age group above 35 racing i.e. those probably with a young family) who could support both at the start and at the end of the race, whilst being treated to a cultural activity in the hour they wait.

Anyway, back to the race, which was progressing quite well for me as I went through 6 miles in just over 45 minutes, over a two minute reduction on my previous best 6 mile time, and I still felt that I was pacing myself reasonably well, something I had figured out beforehand would be the key to actually getting around in one piece. This was after all my first time ever to run 10 miles. It seemed that this steady pace approach was shared by most of the other competitors as there was relatively little of the adventuring ‘dash for a few hundred metres and then die’ type of competitor which you occasionally see at events. This probably reflected both the distance involved and the competitors themselves, most of whom seemed to belong to one club or another, some as far flung as Liverpool and Poole. As a result, most of the people who were around me at the first mile stage, were also there at the tenth mile.

I tried to kick on from 7 miles and while the change of pace materialised for a few hundred yards, taking me past one or two people in front, it fell well short of a genuine change of gear, and I soon realised that it wasn’t sustainable to the end. By the 8 mile marker my legs were letting me know that they were entering unknown territory, but somehow the distance between myself and those in front and behind me seemed to be remaining static, so perhaps I wasn’t the only one suffering.

I already knew going past the 9 mile marker (very useful to have the mile markers along the way) that I was going to be well within my ‘I’ll be satisfied with’ time of 80 minutes, but any hopes of actually going under 75 minutes evaporated with the climb to the finish around Skidby Mill where the gradient was probably the harshest of the whole course, definitely the longest and also saw the wind hit us again. A chap in front of me stopped to walk a couple of times going up, a tactic I avoided as I knew it would be even more painful to start again. Needless to say I made it finally and even summoned up the energy for a fairly pathetic sprint finish. 181^st from my first outing at this distance and against lots of committed club runners was a pleasing return and has given me confidence to build on this for the triathlon season ahead.

The Barracudas were out in force as well, though many seemed to be hiding behind their athletic clubs’ membership! As if to prove that membership of the club committee can have a powerful impact upon your times, Club Secretary Antonia Goodison knocked 9 mins 48 secs off her personal best time for this distance, finishing in 88.54. A little before her came Treasurer Kevin Dean with 87.37 and sandwiched between both of these was former Chairman Simon Gower at 88.36. Jackie Hardman posted an 85.31 with Steve Girking 2 minutes ahead of her at 83.11. Alan Dale finished in 81.39, Kevin Rennison in 77.08. Speaking to Peter Overvoorde afterwards, I think he probably felt that it had been a useful work out, clocking up 74.26 over the distance. Well done to Emma Barraclough who finished a good 2 minutes ahead of me at 73.47, while Shaun Willox almost beat the 7 minute mile average, finishing in 71.46. Robin Harris just dipped under this with his 69.27. I found myself on the starting line with Steve Braund and half considered shadowing him the whole way, just as well I didn’t though as he romped around in 68.22 i.e. finishing a whole mile ahead of me. Finishing in 50th place with a time of 64.53 was Alan Bayston, while he was just pipped by ‘man of ice’ (following his frozen lake exploits) Mike Beadle at 64.29. Taking part in the Barracuda Winter triathlon must have had some effect on Nicholas Riggs as well as he completed the course in 62.44. Those dipping under the 6 minutes a mile have already been mentioned with the winner Karl Ryde of Doncaster AC in a time of 54.42, though perhaps he took a shortcut!

Anyway, well done to all those Barracudas taking part and apologies if I’ve missed anyone out.

Phil Haskins