I was so looking forward to the Spar Lantern 10km night race last night. It was rated as one of the best 10km races in the country last year. I wanted to take part as I had heard that it was well organised and the atmosphere was amazing with the entire route lit up by lanterns. After last nights race I have no idea why it was rated so highly.

I think why it was so bad last night was mostly because of the big field. The announcer mentioned after the race that there were over 4000 people taking part and that was what contributed to the absolute scrum that took place on the roads. The entire race is run on the Agricultural Research Council’s property in Irene. The roads are fairly narrow and not in the greatest condition. The lanterns were few and far between and the road surface was not great to negotiate in the dark.

There was only one table which was placed just after the 3km mark and the route then doubled back on itself and we passed the same table at around the 7km mark. The route doubling back on itself is the major problem of this race.

The 5km fun run/walk and 10km race start at the same time. It took us almost 11 minutes to do the first km (that is not including the 3 minutes it took to get over the start line. The reason for this was the unbelievable congested start with many people pushing prams and having small children with them. After the first kilometre things started to flow slightly better and we were sort of able to run. It was just after the 2km mark that things got really congested again because the leaders were now doubling back on the route and the already congested main field on two lanes of the road now got shunted into one lane. So the scrum continued. Things got slightly better when the 5km runners took a detour and the bigger race continued along its way. It was just the 8km mark that the 5km runners joined the route again and it was virtually impossible to run again (never mind push for the finish) once again we had to scrum our way through masses of people with prams and small children. The finish was not much better. As we approached there were tons of people standing on the road and I thought that was pretty cool the way they were supporting the runners. It was only then that I realised they were runners and the congestion in the finish chutes for the 5km had backed up to about 300m before the finish.

I think the organisers really need to have a serious look at the 2011 race. Either the field needs to be limited, the venue changed or the route dramatically altered so that the two races are separated and so that it doesn’t double back on itself. To be honest I don’t think I’ll be back in a hurry.

Other than that it was an enjoyable run. Its not the most difficult 10km run you will ever do as you can see by the route profile below (You can have a look a the entire race on Garmin Connect from the data I collected with my Garmin 310XT). I ran with an old friend, Gareth Edwards – sports anchor for the E News channel whom I hadn’t seen in ages. That boy is crazy fit. He is a pretty good cyclist and has just recently got into running. He did a 90km cycle in the morning, ran the race with me and hardly broke a sweat!