Back in the saddle after a fortnight off after the Berlin Marathon and the first planned race on the road back to normality. Note: This is not strictly true as I had booked myself on the Run with the Girls 10K in Regents Park last weekend but a friend talked me out of it.

Now, I have been suffering from a little bit of post marathon blues. A little? Make that a lot, as combined with the huge hole left by completing my biggest challenge to date, I have been suffering from tendinitis in my right knee so my running since Berlin had been restricted to the walk/jog of the ParkRun tail.

The Petts Wood 10K was sold to me by Orpington runner @Judie_Judie and when I arrived the whole event had the feel of the Turks Head 10K, a wonderful community race with great support, local businesses setting up food (beer) tents

It had it all, kids, families, food, and, my favourite quote of the day, and one that really paints the picture of it (from the MC) “if you’d like to take part, the pre-race warm up will now start by the bouncy castle”.

Beer Tent

Petts Wood, as I discovered is 1. Outside of London, 2. In Kent, and 3. In Oyster Zone 5. And is quite lovely. Catching the train down from London Bridge meant an early start and I could have had an extra hour in bed if I had known just how easy it was to get to the event. It was one of those perfect storm days on the tube too with a Jubilee line train waiting for me. Ah well, if I race there again I will know I can leave later.

Walking around the well supported event there were a lot of local club runners as well as #ukrunchat #teamred superstars @Jen_Mo and @Judie_Judie and @adcktd1947, a manned baggage tent, race HQ, excellent covers band, the aforementioned bouncy castle, a beer tent, a tea and bacon sarnie vendor, everything you would want from a community race with about 1000 runners. And that is testament to how good this race is; Sunday was the day of the Royal Parks half, but at stations across London people were heading south east toward Petts Wood for this race.

This was a mixed bag really. You started in a rec that you ran around once on wet grass before going out onto the roads. These were mostly open so you needed to stick to the pavement before a railway bridge (and an unexpected workmate marshalling) before a field! Yes, a field! And then woods, or rather wood, with all those muddy, root shaped tripping hazards, then a field, then stony country lanes, then more woods, before finally getting back on road by the end. The woods seemed to mostly be uphill, and the country lanes seems to be more downhill which actually worked as coming down the muddy woodland slopes could be precarious.

My tendinitis was mostly kept under wraps with ibuprofen and my 2XU calf sleeves rolled up under my knee to strap it. Although a ways into the wood my left foot went to sleep, and then my left calf, and I had to remove the calf sleeve, after taking off my shoe, to continue. I ran the whole way other than that, in a slow 56 minutes (57 on watch as I stopped it after I had finished) but I just wanted to get around in one piece, and I did that.

The beer and band were joined by wonderful samosas from a local Indian restaurant adding to everything and a good time was had by all. The colder start to the day even made way to sun and warmth on the way around.

Is bespoke and the badge of the running club organisers.

And I like it.

Would I run it again? Probably not, but that is only due to the sheer volume of races available to us. I had a great time catching up with Jen and Judie, blue cheese burger with bacon, chips and beer.

Would I recommend it? Sure, if you like that kind of race and don’t mind the train and tube journey there and back on a Sunday morning.

So Manchester will be my next marathon, and then Copenhagen a month later. Get in!