Fred Hughes 10

I went for a tough, but enjoyable, run in the snow and all I got was a technical t-shirt.

This was my second outing to the Fred Hughes 10, but with the promise of being able to tackle the original route (the three previous incarnations of the route all ran a two-lap alternative course due to flooding), I was excited to arrive in St.Albans. Well, excited until it started snowing.

With the flakes starting to settle, the 800 or so runners gathered together at a congested start line ready to tackle an undulating 10-mile, figure-of-eight along frozen country lanes. The road surface was good, just a few deep puddles along the way and slippy in places with the snow, nothing too bad. There were a few challenging hills, the long climb from the motorway bridge was especially tough, the downhills were also unforgiving, impacted by the freezing conditions.

Facilities were reasonable; a local school about 1km away from the start hosted a cafe, number collect, space to leave a bag and toilets. There was parking on site but this was full over an hour before the race and there was quite a trek for those who missed out. Drinks took place in the middle of the figure of eight which offered plenty of opportunities for parched runners and well wrapped-up marshalls were on hand along the route to guide runners on their way. Water and a banana greeted runners at the end, sadly the results printer had actually frozen!

Bling wise no medal. A lovely technical t-shirt with reflective writing on the back (in grey for men’s sizes and red for women). But no medal. Sad times…

Overall? I went for a tough, but enjoyable, run in the snow and all I got was a technical t-shirt.

Personal running stats

Chip time – 1:31:51 (a 10 minute improvement on last year)
PBs – Best 10 miles and 15k
Report – A tough hill took the pace out just after 6 miles, but pushed at the end and felt good all the way around.