The Bedford ATW Running Festival is a great family-friendly event taking place in and around Bedford’s more scenic areas, the Embankment and Priory Marina. Lorna was keen to run a 10K this summer and this seemed to be a perfect event for her. I noticed there was also a 20 mile version so decided to enter that myself!
We were super impressed when we turned up at the event on the Saturday for Lorna’s run. It had a real summer festival feel to it with plenty of music, entertainment and fairground rides for the kids, who were having a fantastic time while Lorna ran her 10K. Despite the hot weather she had a great time taking part!
I came back the following day for the 20 miler, along with my cousin Daryn who was keen to run this distance for the first time. He did great, but this event turned out to be a nightmare for me!
The 10K definitely seemed to be the main event of this weekend with a lovely route planned out, one big lap of the marina, looping back to the embankment to a big finish. However the 20 mile route felt like it had been designed around the volunteers’ coverage rather than the runner’s experience – it starts off like the 10K, but then there’s a long stretch along some cycle paths up to a nature reserve (which we’d need to run three laps of), then head back the way we came. The route was interrupted with lots of loops and out-and-backs and to me felt quite fragmented and hard to read. I wasn’t the only one confused by the route as I overheard another runner had accidentally run an extra loop of the nature reserve, making his run much longer! I can understand why it’s done this way though, to be able to offer 20 miles as an option and stay manageable to cover.
Another big challenge was the weather – It felt much cooler than the MK24 I did a couple of months ago, but it was still very hot and humid. I started to really struggle during the second half of this race, eventually slowing to a walk. I saw at least two other runners had collapsed during the event, maybe due to the heat. A helicopter was even called to help which was kind of dramatic and very sobering, I hope the runners got the care they needed and recovered well.
I had run ahead of Daryn during the first half of this run but I slowed down gradually from there. I noticed he was able to keep a nice steady pace throughout and eventually overtook me, finishing about 10 minutes ahead with a pretty decent time for his first try at this distance. I hobbled in at 3:53:14, glad to see the finish.
All in all this was a very well organised event, lively and a lot of fun for the whole family. I can only really recommend this as a 10K though, or maybe even the half marathon at a push. The route is clearly optimised for those shorter distances and features some of the best parts of Bedford to run.
