This weekend saw the arrival of the Herefordshire Festival of Sport. Having an event like this so local to us we grabbed the opportunity to take part with both hands!
Team DM Lab opted for the 40km ride on Saturday and the half marathon on the Sunday.
The ride was a lovely route round the glorious countryside of Hereford. The mist was just about clearing when we started and the sun was out! The roads were dry which meant great conditions for a fast ride although we wanted to hold back to save some in the tank for the run the day after! We followed the safety car (which we used as a pace car too!) which we really appreciated and thought it was a great idea, allowing us to go a little bit faster around the narrow country lanes where usually we’d take a little more caution. Shame other motorists didn’t appreciate the safety car as much as we did – they were pretty rude to be fair! All in all a well organised and well marshaled sportive which we’ll enter again next year – at least a 90km route anyway!
Sunday was again a nippy, misty start. Following a quick group warm up we were off. Having not run in last year’s event I soon gathered the route was slightly different as runners around me seemed a bit bemused – assuming it was the same as last year. We weren’t fussed either way. The route took us around some hilly roads and the mist soon cleared for almost perfect running conditions – dry, not too hot and not too cold. What was a really great idea was staggering the starts so that waves of marathon, half marathon and 10k runners all merged a mile before the finish line.
The festival village was pretty cool as well with loads going on and the organisers couldn’t have wished for better weather. A great local event which will get better and more popular each year we’re sure. We have to great looking medals to show for our efforts plus some achy legs today!
