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Help For Heroes 10k, Moreton Fire Service College by Edward Collier - April 2010

Barry Norman, the BBC 1's film critic before Jonathan Ross, was talking once about a film that was sexually rather near the knuckle. He suggested, and I tend to agree with him, that watching people make love doesn't make for a very good spectator sport, since the optimum outcome is a score-draw after extra time. I'm generally of the opinion that charity-giving isn't really a spectator sport either - I get uncomfortable watching "Children In Need", for example, when benefactors with deep pockets make expansive public gestures. The money, of course, is welcome, but I'm less convinced by the reciprocal glow cast upon the donor plutocrat.

Still, I'm not going to get too worked about my public participation in the "Help For Heroes" 10k race held on Sunday 11 April, which cost me the princely sum of £10. I'm unashamedly in favour of this particular charity - without getting embroiled in discussions about whether Britain should currently be putting its forces in harm's way, a subject on which we might agree to disagree - as a nation we owe it to those who volunteer to protect us to do whatever we can to help them if they are injured in action, and to help and support their families as well. In my opinion it's actually something that the government should be doing, but of course there's no money left after giving it all to the useless bankers.

I sense a quicksand of controversy ahead, and you may have heard how I feel about going off-road, so let's get back to the race. The gods of weather seem to be smiling these days, on me at least. First Chedworth, then the Forest of Dean Half, and now Help For Heroes 10k - all three perfect running weather. I arrived at the course with plenty of time to spare, so I thought I'd mill about and soak up the atmosphere. Well, I would have done if there had been any - the Moreton Fire Service College is like a cross between the set of "Survivors" and a 1960s French ski resort that's about to be demolished. However, that's just the public face of it - the accommodation blocks and the FourShires visitor centre, where cakes, tea and souvenirs were for sale. Once the race was started (by Norm Lane, the public face and jester-in-residence of Bourton Road Runners, complete with his comedy wooden stepladder) we were off down the stick part of a lollipop-shaped course around the site.

It's huge, the site, and it certainly has some sites - no, hang on, I mean sights. There's a huge car park full of wrecks either waiting to be further wrecked, set on fire or be dismantled with the Jaws of Life. There are several aircraft in various stages of disintegration. There are staged car crashes. Semi-burnt out buildings. In the distance I spotted a train. There's even a section of the M96, which was completely unrealistic as there were no road works at all. Alongside this motorway was an actual burning building - well, it was smoking, which was worse for the runners as the wind was in the wrong direction.

The course was two laps, with (I originally thought) no mile markers (though I did notice on the second lap that there were markers painted on the road for 2 miles and 4 miles) and a drinks station at around half way. It's mainly flat and the surface is good - hard and unyielding, with no need for waffles or studs. Ah, tarmac, how I love thee. For me it's a bit too twisty to be a perfect PB course - on at least a couple of occasions I had to slow quite markedly to get round a corner, but it was very well marshalled and, with so many capable people in uniform around, I've never felt so safe at a race.

I managed to come 11th (and 1st MV50) after a pretty poor run, just behind James Wilkinson, who ran a PB in 10th place. They're aiming for 500 entrants next year and if they get the publicity right they should achieve it easily. It's a bit weird for me to love a course that's not actually on the road, but then it's a bit of a weird race.