Ed: The Buckingham 10K was my first event back after injury at the Wolverhampton half marathon on 4 September. As an additional challenge I decided to cycle the hour to the venue in the High Street, the Whale Pub. It was a cool but bright morning, definitely needing the thermal cycling jacket and long tights of the Vegetarian Cycling & AC. By the time of arrival I was warmed up and the temperature was on the rise so a VRUK vest was sufficient. Met-up with one other VC&AC member who despite being a V65 immediately raced ahead of me however I was in no hurry after the ride and on my first race back.

We were soon climbing out of Buckingham on the long route to Stowe Landscape Gardens and took the right-hand path away from the road. The path was quite rough but at least straight and approaching the Gardens the cushioning was notable. The surface changed many times in the gardens and in the worst case it was loose stones or gravel which slowed us down. For a stretch of about 200 metres the runners were coming from the opposite direction after a U-turn. We then had the long uphill stretch from the River Ouse back to the entrance from where we retraced our steps back to Buckingham.

After the tough start getting back into the feel of a race, it was business as usual. On the way to Stowe I did lose a few places but inside the gardens I picked up a number of places, maintaining a steady if not spectacular pace due to the course restrictions. Was quite pleased with the finish but the time of 44.55 appears quite slow to my normal 42 / 43mins for the reasons described.

Peter Simpson