Blenheim Palace 10k

A lovely undulating, scenic race.  The lovely Mrs S and I arrived in the grounds of Blenheim Palace on a rather chilly morning at a well-attended and busy event.  There was a real mix of people, with some serious-looking young men doing comedy warm-up drills ranging to plenty of have-a-go runners who were dressing against the cold.

Lots of people set off a fast lick, but it was obvious that many of them were being rather ambitious (qv note above).  The estate path was good and wide, so kms 2-4 were good fun cruising past runners who were starting to regret their exuberant starts.  There was a short dog-leg towards the palace front, and I counted about 9 runners ahead of me. 

Then we were into the wind and the start of the hill.  It was a good bracing progress upwards to the top through pleasant woodland, and then a zippy descent back into parklland.  We had a diversion around a ha-ha (this being a posh sort of venue) and then a good blast to the finish.

I finished in 39:01 on my watch, which is a bit annoying, but 7th place and 38:58 chip timing, so let's go with that.  Mrs S had a blast of a run too.  A lovely morning out on a bright autumn morning.