Heath Bampton – The Great North 10K
Heath Bampton, Civil Servant at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, was awarded ‘Bronze level’ funding through the Elite Sponsorship Fund, in recognition of his England Masters selection in the Great North 10km run at Newcastle.
Heath was kind enough to send us a report of his endeavours ‘t’up north’.
“This was my fourth representative race over 10km. I qualified through the Great Bristol 10km last May. The race incorporated our annual 10km event against the Welsh and Northern Irish Masters.
I’ve been fortunate in previous representative races that I could travel there and back on the same day. Given Newcastle was at the other end of the country from me, I decided to combine it with some annual leave to explore the area.
Taking in the sights and sites
I travelled up on the Friday before the race. This allowed me to not only recce the race route on the Saturday but also partake in a leisurely run around a local parkrun. This is part of my pre-race ritual. The parkrun I chose was called “Rising Sun”, named after the open cast colliery, that had once existed on the site. You wouldn’t know this to be the case, however. The area is now an established country park and haven for nature. Being a Mental Health 1st aider, parkrun/walk is one of the anxiety signposting tools I like to flag up where appropriate. You get to release endorphins through exercise, often in a picturesque outdoor setting. Also, there’s always an opportunity to meet so many lovely people over coffee/tea/cake afterwards. It never ceases to amaze me how many people turn their lives around through this outlet. Not forgetting the wonderful volunteers that make it all possible. I do volunteer where I can; you get great satisfaction from supporting others. Over the last couple of years, I’ve become a bit of a parkrun tourist, visiting many different sites. There is the added benefit for me of exploring another passion of mine, local history.
While exploring the area, I made full use of my CSSC membership visiting a couple of English Heritage venues. On the way up North, I popped into Bolsover Castle near Chesterfield. A smashing site with a lovely café. For the green fingered among you, they hosted a beautiful array of plants for sale too. I also visited Carlisle Castle, another venue I wholeheartedly recommend, with a rich and varied history and informative guides.
And…they’re off
So, onto the race itself. I arrived at the venue in good time, making use of the excellent Newcastle metro system. Conditions were good, dry and overcast with a welcome cooling breeze. I headed to the England athletics tent to be presented with my representative badge (Think of the award of a cap in football). Immediately I recognised friends from across the nations and spent a short time catching up on their progress. After the compulsory team photo, I headed off on my pre-race warm up, again bumping into familiar faces. After running for nearly 45 years, you establish a wide network, but it doesn’t stop the nerves which were now kicking in. This is a good sign, as I channel them toward my race performance. We lined up in our pen and like the start of the Grand National we were sent on our way. The course is downhill for the first half, with a tough climb back out of the city centre in the second half. We got to cross the Tyne bridge twice and took in several other iconic sites of the Newcastle city skyline. I managed to tag along with a fellow England Master in my age category for most of the race. I think we helped pull each other around drafting in each other’s wake, just like the experts you see on TV. I should say the spectator support was brilliant. The organisers even laid on a ‘run-through-shower’ to cool us down. Finally, we reached the long straight road back toward the finish. Jockeying for position we were all biding our time when to begin our sprint for home. I crossed the line in a time of 37.27 to finish 7th in age category. The time was a little down on what I expected, but the course was not PB material. However, I was pleased that I held off all but one of the Welsh/Irish athletes. My contribution helped England retain their home nations crown. The two pictures show a fresher me at the start, with a more fatigued figure racing toward the finish line.
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