BH10k - Blumin' Hilly

In fairness, I was warned by a friend who'd run the Brands Hatch 10k before that it was a bit hilly but I'd brushed it off. I'd watched a YouTube video of the track and decided it wasn't an issue. However, stood on the track at the top of Paddock Hill Bend it was an awful long way down and even further up to the top at Druids. On top of that there were awkward cambers that I haven't had to deal with before. Having said all that, it was all good experience and I just stopped for water briefly at 2 and 4 miles.
I was a bit disappointed at the size of the field as I was hoping to get more experience of running in a crowd but there were only about 200 runners. I took it fairly easy on the first lap as the track was more challenging than I'd anticipated but according to my Garmin I covered the 6.12 miles in 53:03 which is an average pace per mile of 8:40. Not bad considering the hills. My chip time may just come in at under 53 minutes but I'll have to wait and see about that.
I had kitted myself out with the GoPro camera on a chest harness as well as my hydration pack which I had deliberately overfilled just to get used to running with the weight. But as I approached the start line the camera wouldn't come on. I've been calling it a GoPro in all my posts but in reality it's a cheap copy and I paid for that today. It's always been a bit temperamental. I certainly won't be trusting it with the record attempt and will buy the real thing before the Copenhagen half. At least it saves me the bother of all that editing time tonight.
It was cold to stand about today but not a bad temperature to run in. Towards the end there was a very light drizzle which was quite refreshing and made my shoes squeak on the tarmac - I'm guessing there were a lot of petrol and oil spills being rehydrated.
It was a shorter distance than I would've run this weekend but I won't take the balls out again until the following weekend when I might try a half marathon distance.
As I was leaving today a group of spectators asked me:
"Did you lose the balls at all?"
"Of course I didn't!"

Brands Hatch in the June drizzle