Comments: I enjoy the low-key flavor of these local British events. It's what I was raised on, and they're so much simpler than the US races that I normally do. No T-shirts or swag, minimal post-race refreshments, minimal prizes (e.g., no AG awards). People simply show up, run, and then mostly run home again. The one thing that I miss is that the range of abilities is much narrower than in US races. 8 min/mile in a US race would be MOP or much better, but in a UK race it's among the stragglers. This isn't because the runners are so much better, it's because the races are simply drawing a far narrower segment of the running population.
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