Bonfire Burn 2022

When there’s a big banner for a 10 km race staring at you if you glance out of your office window, it does seem rude not to enter.

Mind, this was back pre-pandemic in 2019, not long after I learnt I’d got a 2020 London marathon ballot place and at a point I could actually run a full 10 km. Fast forward to 2022, and things aren’t quite so good with the running, but the training for the three-year-plus marathon is back on as I aim to improve enough to somehow make it round the 26.2 miles next April. Hence, I’m starting to mix in some training races to give me motivation.

Therefore, I once again decided to enter the Bonfire Burn 10k, a friendly race run in aid of a local community group. In 2019, I was on my own for the race - I think it clashed with a cross-country that James was at - but this year, we both managed to make it.

The race itself is nice and flat, as might be expected for the Cambridge area - and that suited me fine - hills only make you stronger up to the point they puff you to a standstill!

In 2019, you actually started along the road past my office window. This year, however, the route had been adjusted to avoid the need for road closures (I do recall an unimpressed driver as we all milled around blocking the road) and started on the Histon and Impington recreation ground, at the same location as the finish.

I understand that there were a good 750 entries for the event, but given the hour or two before the race had the rain was coming down in sheets, I’m not surprised the starting numbers were a little down on that. I can only be glad that the rain seemed to ease off a little as the start time approached, because, as the path round the fields at the start is quite narrow, we do start in three waves to space us out a bit, meaning I have a little bit of a wait.

James being (hopefully) faster than 45 min, means he is asked to go in wave 1, while those at the back of wave 3, like me, start about 10 minutes later.

I will admit to feeling concerned that this was the furthest I’d actually run in at least a year, but, trying to keep positive, I was hopeful that with a run-walk plan, I could get round in a time that was fair on the volunteer marshalls who would be stood out on the latter bits of the course. (Although I have been solidly training at increasing distance recently, it hasn’t been totally successful.)

Soon though, we were all off. After a scuttle round the fields on concrete tracks, there’s a section that’s a bit faster along a pavement before the route turns onto a trail at about 3 km in. Now, I remember this bit being sticky before, but today, after the ~550 runners preceding me had skedaddled along it, it was actually just far too slippery for the few of us at the back to run it at all, so cue 1.25 km of me picking my way along the least boggy looking bits of the track, only occasionally breaking into so much as a trot. James comments that even towards the front of the race it was a bit like cross country! So much for my careful run-walk plan.

Finally, we exited the trail, and we were back on for some more running on tarmac round the offices of the Cambridge Science Park, and yeah for the water station manned by the local scout group, which I needed by then (I took two cups).

At 6.5 km in is where you hit the super-fast section, a section very familiar to me as it’s on my (cycling) commute; this is a completely straight flat run (and walk) back towards Histon along the access track of the guided busway, which follows a former railway line.

[Note, if you’re not so used to the busway, which has seen serious accidents on other sections, you do need to take a little care not to stray close to the bus tracks.]

I was starting to feel the distance by now, but more or less was back with running and walking to plan (noting that the extra walking done early in the race didn’t mean I was suddenly able to go at a better pace). When you’re used to going along the route on a bike though, progress while running doesn’t seem very speedy in comparison!

At this point too, the weather reverted into heavy rain, and I was thinking jealously of James, who was bound to have finished. Finally, a soggy me turned off the busway at 9 km, made it up the brief climb of another muddy path that you had to walk on, and it was just one lap of the recreation ground to go.

James was waiting under his umbrella and was trying to encourage me to do more running and less walking, but I was saving myself so as to make sure I actually ran to the finish line. And, success, a sprint finish and I was over it, with the marshals ready to make sure we returned the reusable timing chips. The last thing to do was to collect the fabulous wooden medal, with its bonfire motif (and grab my rain coat).

As to times, James did it in 40:19 and me in 1:28:31. I think we both thought these were at least in line with what we might expect, and I was pretty pleased given my most recent benchmark was ~45 min for the First Saturday of the Month 5k (with a whole kilometre of walking, I thought I’d never keep it within double that at one point despite the lack of hills).

Obviously, the most important bit of any race is post-run munchies, and since I’d last done the race a new cafe had opened up in what had once been a railway station. Although I’d been there for a lunch, I’d often looked enviously at those enjoying sweet treats and ‘waffles, waffles’ might have been a mantra for whenever I was feeling like I might not make it during the run.

The one advantage to being slow is those finishing their own snacks were just starting to vacate the inside tables, so we got to warm up/dry off with hot chocolate and banoffee waffle. Perfect.