I ran the Rudolph Run along the seafront in Southend this morning. It is a nice local 5 mile race with plenty of runners in festive fancy dress. I opted for normal running attire, the only nod to Christmas being the Santa red of my running top.
I managed to get the morning off ferrying the girls to gymnastics, and took advantage and got parked up ridiculously early. I spent it in my warm car reading a book for forty very pleasant minutes, before getting myself out for a walk warm-up followed by about four wees. A combination of too much water, some nerves and the cold.
The start was delayed by a few minutes as we waited for various Santa's, elves, snowmen etc to get to the start line. The runners were coming from the car park towards the start, but were in the direction we were heading so we patiently waited for them to get into position. A quick briefing and we were off. There were a couple of runners too far forward but I managed to get myself into some space and was running fine within 10 seconds, too fast, but fine.
My head was all a bit jumbled trying to work out my target time prior to the race. The 21:23 parkrun at the end of November was giving me the ridiculous prediction of 35:18. My PB from 2016, the only other time I have done a 5 mile race of 35:08, was that in danger? I knew it wasn't, and settled on 36 minutes or 4:30 per km as my target. I have always been better the shorter the distance, and as we move away from 5k the relative performance drops. In hindsight perhaps the 37:50 prediction off my 10k at the end of October would have been a better benchmark.
In any event, 4:30 per km was the goal pace, I went through the first km in 4:16, which on paper looks ok, but that was wind assisted. The first mile was wind assisted, 2.5 miles wind against, then turn and 1.5 miles wind assisted to finish. I began the second km and looked down to see my lace undone, my pretty baby blue Nikes had let me down, that or my weak bunny ears. I pulled over to deal with them, my hands weren't my friend in the cold and my Garmin has me stationary for 15 seconds. Thus a 4:39 2nd km, 4:24 plus a stop feels about right.
We were now turned around at the fort and heading back towards the start, the wind in our faces. I was working hard, making some horrible noises, km's 3 and 4 done in 4:32 and 4:34. Except for the shoe lace stoppage I could about get onboard with those first four km's.
My heart rate was now at 174bpm and we are getting close to maxing out, I went through the start/finish point and out the other side, 4:42 and 4:44 kms into the wind before the relief of the final turn. This was after 6km or so. Heading for home with the wind on our backs. The course was now a good bit busier, we ran back in the cycle lane in the main, but with no headphones on I was able to stay safe and hoped back on the pavement when required.
I managed to catch a few people on the way back in, 4:33 and 4:17 km to finish as well as 47 seconds for the final 0.13 miles. They may have had us running a few extra metres but it mattered not, an official finish time of 37:01 and 35th place out of a field of 616, the top 6%, a very flattering metric, as this definitely had strong fun run vibes.
A couple of excuses/interesting things to note. I had run 10 miles yesterday, far from max effort, but still not ideal pre-race preparation. 2016 was it turns out a long time ago, 9 years by my calculations, when I was 32 years old. Using the new WAVA tables my 35:08 performance would get me 60.12%. Compare that to my 41 year old self today, 37:01 is good enough for a WAVA of 59.83%. I intend to carry on training strong through 2026 and return to the Rudolph Run next December, a PB there aged 42 and I would be looking at a WAVA of almost 64%.
Other 'positives' the 2016 edition was actually a slightly different course and Strava has today measuring at 5.09 miles and the 2016 course at 4.94 miles. On the negative side, reading my 2016 notes I had been ill in the lead up to the race and run 9 miles on the Friday after work, I also have a note saying I went to bed 4am Saturday, woke up at 9am did some work and then ran an easy 5 miles. Which puts my grumbles about my 2025 preparation into perspective.
My initial disappointment at today's time has now eased. It is funny the power that expectations can have on your perception of the result. It was another good hit out, 5 miles at 7:16 a mile pace. All good miles in the bank. There are 17 more potential running days in December and I should be good for another 100 plus mile month, there is also a parkrun pencilled in for the 27th December and it would a great end to 2025 if I can beat that 21:23 time from Southend in November, and send me into 2026 with a spring in my step.
