British 10K Race Report

No PB and much disappointment. So let's get the excuses out of the way early. Here's the top four (I couldn't think of a 5th) in order of impact on my crappy performance;

1)Lack of training. Since my HM PB at Southend in Mid-June and the subsequent ITBS I have run 5 times for a total of 16 miles in the intervening 4 weeks. All very steady and longest run of 4 miles. The high bike mileage I have been doing rescued me at Southend and let me run a PB, but the bike mileage couldn't rescue me this time.

2)Congested and Delayed start. Arrived at 8 an hour and a half before the start and we were held and then shuffled along for a km or so over the next hour and a half to the start. The start was then delayed and we set off at 09:50 15 minutes late. Standing packed in for an hour and a half wasn't how I like to prepare, I was very close to the front but with no timing pens there were some very slow people at the front and the first Km was exhausting weaving round other runners.

3)Puking up early Saturday after beers Friday night. Had a great night out Friday but couldn't be bothered to make dinner so had nothing to line my stomach, got home after a good night and 5 or so beautiful pints and puked. I felt delicate Saturday but didn't feel bad the morning of the race.

4)11 mile bike time trial on Saturday. Didn't want to run Saturday so decided to hammer myself with a hard ride Saturday afternoon. Legs felt fine afterwards and I'm not convinced it impacted negatively on my performance.

So there you have it the reasons why I ran 44mins and not the 42mins that I am capable of. Now for a little race report.

- Woke up half 5
- Got the train at half 6
- Arrived a Km from the start at 8
- Stood crammed in for an hour and a half.
- Started at 09:50.
- 1st Km ran and dodged round slow moving traffic but went through the first Km in something like 04:25.
- 2nd and 3rd Km got my speed up and average speed was 04:15 which was on target for my 42minute target.
- 3.5 Km hit a great big tunnel. Garmin goes on autopause and loses signal, we turn around and go back through great big tunnel. Loss of Garmin signal meant I had no idea how long I had taken and the distance on the Garmin was messed up.
- 4Km stitch starts to come on.
- 5Km halway stitch isn't going anywhere and I'm hanging on.
- 6km - 9km. Pain lots of pain. Walking seems so appealling but I resist and slow to a pace that I can get on with. 42mins and a PB are both out the window.
- 9km - Finish. Stitch fades a little and so I put a little burst on to the finish crossing the line with the gun clock just ticking over 45 minutes.

On the plus side my knee didn't give up like it did after Southend HM and I am injury free for LEJOG. That aside there was no upside to this race, I think it has to be the most disappointing race I've run. Maybe it shouldn't be, perhaps with hindsight my goal was too ambitious given my complete lack of preparation but from my 5K time I should run 41mins and from my HM time I should run 42mins.

The morning was made complete when I was heading to the Central Line and the busker starts playing cheer up sleepy jean, I'm not even kidding! Sorry for the negative blog, I'm doing LEJOG in 5 days and I can't wait! I'll be back to tackle the 10K again and this time next year my 10K PB is going to be sub 40mins. Good times.