'Bedgebury Bandits' Event Report
It was fair to say that the entrants from Oaks Blokes for the Bedgebury 10k covered the entire breadth of the club. Or perhaps more accurately the entire height of the club from Dave P to Nigel Event Report Bedgebury 10k (11k for some)
The weather conditions were perfect down at the National Pinetum for the rat race 10k event, so their was an expectation of some good times to be posted. The route was described as a gently undulating trail run in the beautiful setting of the National Pinetum. I can only assume that Dave Palmer has a free lance job writing descriptions of event courses as it failed to mention the lung busting hill top finish......
Undaunted by the unknown for the first timers we whole heartedly launched ourselves into the pre race warm up aerobic routine. Big Nigel P showed a surprising talent for this kind of exercise I have to say. Whilst warming up it was noted (despite us all being in the 'zone') that there were two rather attractive ladies running our wave. I mention them now as I believe they are to blame for an unfortunate turn of events for one of our members. Aerobic warm up Jane Fonda style completed, we walked towards the start. I made sure that I said bye to Chris at the beginning as just like on most Saturdays runs I usually catch up with him over drinks at the end. The aim of our group of Chris, Nigel, Dean and Dave was to finish ahead of Greg who would be chasing us down from the wave behind. With that we were off....
Chris and Nigel set off at a pace, with myself and Dave a little behind. Now as the event got underway on the extremely well marshalled course, in fact probably the best marshalled course ever, the rest of us were a little surprised to see Dave P at about the 7k mark running towards us in the opposite direction to every other runner....It seemed a little odd to be sure. It was no time to stop to enquire why he was doing this and the course proved to be challenging in the second half with a pretty evil finish just by the event village. That said all The Oaks Blokes put in a gallant effort to all finish strongly at the end.
At the post race debrief it was discovered that Dave P had made a wrong turn on the best marshalled course ever 'probably' just after the two very attractive ladies (noted in the warm up) had just run past him. It seemed this event had momentarily robbed him of his sense of direction and the ability to recognise high visibility green. Dave agreed that this is what 'probably' happened as it would have been impossible for anyone to have got lost on the best marshalled event course ever.
There were some great times being posted .Chris and Greg ran sub 49mins, Nige about 51mins , myself at 57mins, Dave R at 58mins and Dave 'Pines' Parker and Ian at slightly over the hour. It was the first 10k event for Dave R and myself and I am sure we'll be back next year at this fantastically best marshalled event ever..."