Bermuda makes the Newcastle UK Newspaper as Bermuda 10K competitor Nick Swinburn shared his experience he endured during a stormy trip to Bermuda for an International Road Race, with torrential rain and gale-force winds from the start.
Swinburn never bargained for hurricane storms when he travelled to Bermuda for an international road race.
Prior to heading for Hamilton, the island’s capital, the Morpeth Harrier had experienced extreme cold conditions in the Great Edinburgh Cross-Country International, so a trip to the North Atlantic seemed ideal at this time of year to represent England in a 10k road race.
Swinburn, who has been in great form recently, had been informed the race always produced fast times, so he was eagerly looking forward to seeing if he could dip below the 29min 55secs he ran in the Leeds Abbey Dash last November.
However, things didn’t quite turn out as expected as the competitors began to gather for the early morning start.
A full weekend of races were scheduled and while the road miles went ahead in perfect conditions on the Friday night – as did Sunday’s marathon – Saturday’s weather had changed dramatically when it was time for the 10k race.
Swinburn, who plans to ease back on competition for a while after a hectic recent programme including trips to Belgium as well as Edinburgh and Bermuda, said: “They were right in saying there had been fast times in the race in the past but the conditions we encountered certainly weren’t ideal, in fact it put a right dampener on things!
“When I looked out of the hotel window on the morning of the race it was as though it was the middle of the night, it was so dark.
“And when it was time for the race to start – there over 800 hardy athletes on the line – it was still dark and the wind was gale force and the rain was lashing down.
“But I thought to myself I’ve come all this way so I’m not going to let it get me down as I’ve often trained in conditions nearly as bad back home.’’
Once the race got underway Swinburn quickly settled into his stride in a leading group of three and, despite the howling gale, felt comfortable.
“Naturally, there weren’t too many spectators around the course but once we got going I felt I slotted into a good rhythm,’’ added Swinburn.
“We were still together until just after half-way when one of the guys started to pull away leaving two of us together and well clear of the chasing group.
“The two of us ran side-by-side for the rest of the race and in the end I was outsprinted and had to be content with third place.
“Afterwards when I saw my time – 31:48, his slowest 10k for three years but over a minute-and-a-half quicker than the fourth-placed athlete – I thought that wasn’t very good but taking into account the conditions and the travelling then I realized it wasn’t that bad.
“There are always positives to take from a race and after checking the winner’s time of 31:23 for Zambia’s Jordan Chipangama, who is a talented runner, then I realized it wasn’t so bad after all.
“Also, Jacob Allen, who beat me at Leeds and was the other England representative, finished two minutes after me so he really suffered in the conditions.
“When I got home it was bitterly cold but I never thought it would be nice to say ‘well it’s better weather than where I’ve been’.’’
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