2013 in races

As 2013 comes to a close I, like many other bloggers, have decided to reflect about the races I took part in. 2013 was actually the year I decided to start running, so I only went to three races meaning this blog post should be quite short!

The first race I ever took part in was the Race For Life. I think the Race For Life series is great because it inspires so many people to start running and raise money for a good cause.
The race I did was at North Weald airfield, very flat and a bit boring unless you like looking at planes, but the atmosphere was amazing and there was lots of great fancy dress. Definitely not a race to aim for a PB as lots of people go in the running/jog group and give up after 2 minutes and walk in big groups, there is also no chip timing so I think I finished in around 38 minutes, but it was still a great race and I will do it again next year.
As you can see in the picture I am wearing my Nike Flex trainers. I didn't have these fitted and so I was only able to run once a week because I was getting ankle pain meaning I was undertrained for this race and had to part walk part run it.

The next race I did wasn't until October, but this was a 10K, the Spooky Sprint in Waltham Abbey. I really enjoyed this race, it was a night one which made things a bit different, and my running had also inspired my mum to give the 5K a go, I was so proud of her for doing this!
The course was around the white water rafting centre in Waltham Abbey, a lovely race that took place alongside lots of picturesque rivers and fields, although when it started to get dark the shadows in the forest did get a bit eerie!
By the time this race rolled round I had invested in some properly fitted trainers and managed to do this in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 32 seconds (I think!). Great local race that I would definitely recommend, nice and quiet too!

Lastly we have the 10K MoRun in Greenwich park that was in November.
The course was a bit skew-wiff and the hills where a killer but I still managed to knock 4 minutes off of my previous 10K time and finished in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 38 seconds (ish, I really should look up exact times!)
I didn't particularly enjoy the course, I actually found the park quite boring to run around, but the atmosphere at this race was great with plenty of crowd support and some of the best fancy dress I have seen.

I'm hoping to attend a lot more races in 2014 and get some decent times! So far I have already signed up for the Brighton half marathon in February and the Surrey one in March, I'm now thinking Copenhagen half would make a nice weekend get away too! The medal has to be good though, I only run for the medals. And so I can eat as many burgers as I want.

Have you got any races planned for 2014 yet? What was your favourite of 2013