Last weekend saw the second of the Regent's Park 10k races taking place. I had been running well and so, was really keen to finally break through the 37minute mark which seems to have stuck with me for so long...I suppose that is largely due to the law of diminishing returns though...Anyway, the race got underway in perfect conditions and the first couple of km's felt really fast, a quick look at the watch showed that we had just done two 3:22 km's....not exactly the best way to start out, unless that is, you are aiming for a 32/33 min 10k. I knew I would pay for them later though, so decided to slow down a bit and just try and stay with the right pace of about 3:40km's. In the end I managed to smash pretty much 30s off the previous PB (30s is a lot for me) and came home in 36:43 - finally, I had done it, I had broken 37. This also happened on a run which had not gone totally to plan, I had not felt that good for the whole race, but then again, who cares, I did what I set out to do.
Did another 1/2 marathon as well yesterday. Was listed as a XC event as it was going to be taking place along the Grand Union Canal near Watford - was certainly not smooth asphalt anyway! The gun went off and into the first corner and I was lying in second place as we made a small loop of a playing field to obviously just get the distance exactly right. Out on to the tow path and I was able to take the lead for about 1 and a half miles. I could not believe it, I was in a relatively big running race (300 people) and I was in the lead…me…I'm not even a good runner. Anyway, the eventual winner came past at about 3 miles and then just slowly made his way off into the distance. I was struggling though, not really sure why either as I am running fit at the moment. My breathing was all over the place, mainly as a result of constantly making sure that I was not going to stand on some dodgy ground etc as it was really pitted at some points, slippy in others and pretty rough all the way along. My aim was to go under 1:20 but the wheels were coming off a bit after 4 miles and I was slowly slipping off the pace, not by too much though and I still looked set to go under 80. I went through 10k in 36:48, so that means that I am not running my 10's as hard as I should be! Then, just after the 9 mile board, the wheels totally came off….as in, I went over on my ankle and it really hurt. 2nd place had not long passed me at this point, but I was still in 3rd, in a running race and I could not see 4th down the path. So, I decided to start trying to run on the bad foot…it hurt for a bit, but in the end I was able to get going again. I got through the next 3 miles in some discomfort, although, to be honest, I was only really interested in maintaining 3rd place. I finally got into the park where the finish was and was told by some spectator that I had about 100m on 4th. That sounded good to me, but I still started to pick the pace up a little just to be sure. With about 1k to go, I noticed some people with loads of dogs and they decided that it would be a good idea to all cross in front of me. Not sure what happened next, but I ended up kneeing their big dog in the side and almost falling over again…can people not look after their pets? (it was not on a lead). Still, made it round the corner and saw that the clock was saying 1:21 and 50 something, so I dug in and sprinted home to break 82 by 1s and cling on to 3rd. Not a bad result considering the lost time whilst working out if my ankle was still working and then running into a massive dog.
Have since looked at the stats from the watch and it looks like it was all steady climbing all the way as well…only 30m in total, but hey, uphill is uphill. Plus, the wind was blowing downstream as well…hard in places.
