Sessay swift 6k
This unusual distance takes part in the lovely village of Sessay-, not far from Thirsk. I say unusual as if you went looking for another 6k race you'd struggle.
I decided to do this race as a bit of fine tuning for Berlin marathon as with a lot of my training it had being built around long runs and felt I needed the speedwork.
The race started at 7.30pm on the only road in and out of the village next to probably the biggest tree in the village. Having got there early enough I got a decent warm-up in and spotted Martin Luxton also present.
The call was made to start making your way to the start line and straight away it was clear the attendance was a couple of hundred max. This encouraged me knowing I could possibly be on for a high finish which having secured a top 10 recently gave me some extra motivation. The other part of my motivation was to claim the 6k club record which was held by Jonathan Skidmore.
On the start line my position was to be as close to the line as possible, which I do in every race without chip timing. Martin employed the same tactic.
Off we start and its quick and the leaders are soon making a break. We start by running out of the village which takes us past our finish area and I'd say it was slightly downhill. I like to try and run races at a consistent pace but knowing we were running a little quicker because of the descent my pace was a little quick to begin with. We turned our first left for the anti-clockwise course and I spotted the only other club vest that I recognised all race from Billingham marsh house as he overtook me! This was fine and I tucked in behind another runner and we had a group of 4 moving along. The first mile after a quick start was 5.41 which did include some little ups and downs.
From here the course levelled out and this helped to get a good pace going. My pace quickened to a 2nd mile of 5.37 and in doing this I had overtaken the Marsh house runner and the 4 went down to a two. Shortly after the start of the 3rd mile I had now broken away on my own, and could see I was catching another two runners in front of me.
The race was now getting interesting from a mental point of view as normally in a 5k this would be the point you’re now holding on until the finish line. So, as I was catching the two in front I knew I had to save something for the last kilometre.
Mile 3 was again 5.38 so I was running well. I caught the first lad in front, and as the other one was just pulling away, I decided to sit behind him for a little while. This soon changed as I felt I could still push the pace to the finish line, so I did and in doing so made sure I put a little distance between us straight away.
I was now on the lane in which we started and could see the big tree coming up, I knew from here we had at least 100 metres to the finish and kept pushing without looking behind to see if I was being chased down.
The last 0.7(sorry I don't work in K's) was again 5.38. I managed to finish in 21.04 and a finishing position of 5th which was a career best for me. I also managed to take the club record for 6k so in all it was a successful night, to later find out when Jonathan set it, he ran with a pushchair! I was still happy!
At the finish line it was a banana and some water. The entry price was very fair.
In summary, it’s a great well organised race in a lovely setting. One I'd do again.
Richie Fawcett