On Tuesday I raced the Clevedon Midsummer 10k organised by Clevedon Athletics Club. This is a flat and fast race held on quiet country lanes on the outskirts of Clevedon. Kinisi Run Hub were proud to be supporting this great event!

After a very cloudy day with a fair bit of wind, the conditions really improved by the evening. The skies cleared, the sun came out and we raced in blue skies and sunshine. The hedges around the country lanes also provided plenty of protection from the wind which made for very good racing conditions.

There was a strong turnout for the race with athletes from many local clubs showing up to race. Looking around at the start there were lots of familiar faces and it looked like it would be a good race.

It was a fairly controlled start with no-one bombing off too quickly. I found myself at the front in a small group with a number of runners. Within the first kilometre Ben Rawlins (Westbury Harriers), David Awde (Bristol & West AC) and myself started to pull away from the group and we ran together for a few kilometres.

After a few kilometres, Ben and myself started to distance ourselves from David until we got until the 5km mark. The 5km splits are called out by Clevedon AC President and Founder Member Neil Manners. I went through the halfway point in about 15:50.

Once we got through 5km I slowly started to pull away from Ben and gradually opened up a lead and ran the second half solo chasing down the lead car. I was feeling good and had one of those rare races where the splits are quicker in the second half than the first half of the race.

I was very happy with my race and time as I am starting to come back into form after some down time after the London Marathon back in April. I managed to take the win in 31:23 with Ben Rawlins (Westbury Harriers) second in 32:27 and Thomas Dunford (Bristol & West AC) third in 32:38. Charlotte Taylor (Bristol & West AC) finished an impressive ninth overall to win the women’s race in 33:44 followed home by Alice Smith (Weston AC) in 39:14 and Aisling McCarthy in 39:32. In total there were 463 finishers. Full results here.

The race HQ is at the Mary Elton School where there is plenty of space on the playing fields for number collection, the post-race presentations and we were able to set up a Kinisi Run Hub pop-up shop. The start is a short walk down the road and the finish is on the road just outside the school.

The roads are open during the race but there are plenty of Clevedon AC marshals on the course to ensure any pedestrians, cyclists and cars are aware of oncoming runners.

Well done to everyone who raced and thank you to Clevedon AC for organising another great Clevedon Midsummer 10k race!

If you are interested in taking part in next year’s race then you can read more on the Clevedon AC event page here.