The Castle Howard 6k and 10k

After a sedate start (the race today didn’t begin until 11 – what a lovely lie-in!), GoodGym Yorkies converged on Castle Howard. Driving up to the house gave everyone the opportunity to admire the beautiful scenery, including the range of huge follies spread over the grounds.

Arriving just in time to watch the kids race, we started to gather the various GoodGymmers together. Once we’d collected everyone (with some fantastic fresh faces – including new GoodGym member Kristie, already complete in GoodGym colours) and had posed for pre-race group photos, the warm up started. With a nice range of 80s dance moves, supplemented by Mel and her amazing running man, we enthusiastically prepared to get going.

We were off! Running past the pyramid, GoodGymmers raced along the road. Ducking down into the woods, we got a welcome break from the heat, as we weaved through the grounds. Looping back round, over the hill beside the temple (where Barbara waited to cheer us on, camera at the ready) and over the bridge, the 6km runners headed back to the finish, while those of us running the 10km headed off for our second go at the course.

My favourite part of this race was as we came back round to the hill the second time round. With the sun blazing overhead, Alice cheerfully declared that ‘we’ were going to run up the hill without stopping. I think otherwise I would have been sorely tempted to walk, and am incredibly grateful to both Alice and Egg for encouraging me through it regardless of my complaints. It was lovely to race as a group, it definitely motivates you when you’re running out of steam.

Once over the hill and into the final stretch, which turned out to be an extra half a km above what we were expecting, we all managed a final finishing sprint, cheered on by our wonderful support crew including the 6km runners. Leanne managed a particularly impressive sprint, given that she had already run five and a half miles before racing, and Mel managed a 10km p.b. and still pushed herself to race for the end. Good work all round.

Finally, after one last team photo, complete with lunges and the marvellous GoodGym York flag, we all cooled down and refuelled with ice creams and Guinness cake provided by the lovely Alice. What a wonderful end to a race!