Bespak Great East Anglia Run 2012

On the 6th May 2012 the threeaveragejoes took part in the Bespak Great East Anglia run, this is a 10km race round our home town of King's Lynn, Norfolk.

This was the first time we had all ran together and it was discussed in the office who was going to finish first and what times we where expecting to get. Personally I was feeling good leading up the event after getting over a knee injury and my training had gone really well. I will let the others let you know how they felt, Dazza only entered the competition a couple of days prior after we talking / forced him into entering.

On the day of the race we all meet up, got registered and changed. Meet with a couple of other people from work who had also entered. 15 minutes before the start we had to get into our 'pens'. These 'pens' where time related so the organisers where trying to get all the faster runners to the front to reduce the initial congestion / overtaking of runners. So decision had to be made, sub 50 or sub 45, we went into the sub 50 'pen' and waited for the start. While in the pen our boss captured this picture.

Happy before the start !!

The race started and we all tried to stay together but I found this hard as I have a pace which I can run at comfortably along the first 2km I felt that I was overtaking a lot more people than where overtaking me, was this a good sign or not. At this point Kev was slightly in front of me and Dazza was behind. At the 4km point was feeling really good but started to worry if i had gone too fast in the first couple of km's and this was going to hit me hard towards the end. The route of the run took us through the town, out along the river and then working back towards town after a quick lap of our local park. The support along the route was brillant, I can only imagine what is must be like doing one of the big marathons, one day!! The support really helped and was nice to see people you knew and family in the crowd.

Coming into the last couple of km I was still behind Kev but could see him and my plan was to do a final burst and try and catch him on the last straight before the finish, however just as I was about to pick the pace up I saw him and his friend do the same, bugger never going to catch them now.

Crossed the line feeling really great, loved the run and straight away wanted to do another, meet up with Kev just as Dazza was crossing the line, felt really proud as 12 months ago he smoked and if you said to him that he would be doing something like this he would have just laughed and said we where mad, but he has been really motivated and I think secretly enjoying the training.

Our final times and positions where

• Kev 45:42 pos 274
• Mark 46:17 pos 304
• Dazza 52:06 pos 587

Already looking forward to next years event as now have a time to beat and also looking forward to next event, currently the Wells Triathlon, but might book something in sooner

Mark