By Gail Duckworth

I ran my first city 10k race yesterday in Bristol, which is not quite as big as Manchester but still about 11000 runners this year. Everything you expect from a mass participation event very well organised and lots of atmosphere. It starts and finishes in the Millennium Square which is right on the quayside. I was in the first wave on the white start which was fine it took me about 5 seconds to cross the line behind many elite runners! The course if fairly flat but I found the wind tough heading out which seemed to also be in your face on the way back until you were right in the city centre. Funny it doesn’t seem to affect the winning men, with 28 mins 39 secs by the first Kenyan. Anyway, dipped under 39 mins again but only by 1 second (38 mins 59 secs) but good enough to be 1^st W55 by 10 minutes! The bonus of a big race was the prize money – not enough to live on, but certainly worth the trip down there!