London Easter 10k - 6th April 2026

My original plan was to spend my Bank Holiday Monday running 31km, my last long run before the London Marathon in three weeks time.  Instead I chose to take advantage of Lauren and the girls visting Jan and booked myself in for a 10km race in London.  I enjoyed a successful half marathon in Middlesbrough in March along with my parkrun performance at Clare on Saturday and so I wanted to get a 10km race in to complete the set.

I last ran a 10k at the end of October last year in 47:48, now with five or so months of good training behind me and my 20:58 5km from Saturday I felt that a sub 45 minute 10km should be achievable.  I had done a little pre-race research and it looked like a small event of 200 or so runners.with not alot of super speedy ones so sub 45 would have me fairly near the front.

I was a little keen, and so left the house not long after 7am and arrived at the station in plenty of time for my 7:45 train to London.  Hopping on the circle line to Great Portland Street and the short walk to Regents Park for the race.  I arrived about 9am and had plenty of time to waste with the race not starting till half 10.  

I haven't been to Regents Park before, but it was beautiful.  A perfect spring morning and I enjoyed a stroll around the park, whilst trying to scout out the route as a I did.  With the walk to the station as well I managed to hit my 11,000 steps for the day before the race even started.  I did a short one km warm-up and got myself back to the start in time for the briefing.  Nothing too dramatic to report, 10km is 3 laps and count your own laps.  

The kids in the two mile fun run were right at the front and I was a couple of rows further back.  I just wanted to avoid any slow moving traffic in front.  I did ok in that respect, but only just.  One woman ran, then stopped dead on the start line, presumably because she didn't have satelitte signal or some such.  It was mental, but we all managed to avoid crashing into the lunatic.  

The race then turned onto a nice wide path and I could get into my running.  The park was still open to the public and so there was some weaving.  They had said in the race instructions that it was a no headphone race and I took them at their word.  I didn't want to mess about with bagdrops and so I ran the 10k with my big headphones round my neck.  The course wasn't the most straight forward and so hearing the marshalls instructions was useful and you are generally a bit more in tune with your surroundings when headphoneless.  

The race spread out quickly.  I was working hard throughout the race, breathing heavily from the start and throughout, and this time I didn't have the music to drown it out.  I could feel the effort level was a little too high and I was hunting for km signs early and often.  

It was difficult to tell who was in the race and who wasn't.   You would come past a runner and they might be someone you were lapping, or a runner happily enjoying their run, obvilious that a race was going on.  There were also dogs off leads, walkers and kids out with their parents enjoying the Bank Holiday sun.  It all meant that you had to have your wits about you.  As the race wore on and the fatigue set in that became harder and harder.  I managed to remain on course and not trip over any innocent bystanders.

There were some bumps around the course, nothing too dramatic but enough that you had to work.  The roll down the hill after the fountain that I used to recover, then turning around and back up the slope before a nice gentle downhill and a second gradual incline.  I was hanging on heading into the third lap and that is shown in my splits, here they are for the entire race:

• 4:16 - 1km
• 4:23 - 2km
• 4:14 - 3km
• 4:21 - 4km
• 4:23 - 5km
• 4:15 - 6km
• 4:23 - 7km
• 4:29 - 8km
• 4:26 - 9km
• 4:19 - 10km
• Final 0.07 miles 26 seconds (5:52 min/miles)

That cluster from 7km-9km you can see I am clinging on.  All mid to high 4:20's before a final push of 4:19 and then a sprint for the line and that 26 seconds of extra effort I could have done without.  Rather too long than too short though.

I finished strong, relieved to have finished, I could so easily have resorted to a 30 second catch your breath walk at numerous points during the race but didn't.  My final time of 43:55 really was my maximum effort and I left nothing out there.  I finished 27th out of 218 finishers, but was disappointingly only the third fastest Simon, in a stacked Simon field.  

This race was my 27th 10km race and my fifth fastest , it was also my fastest in nearly 11 years, since my PB race of 41:44 in May 2015.  WAVA has me achieving 63.37% yesterday which is my best ever over the distance, that PB from 2015 was only worth 63.37%.  Which seems a little cruel for having gone more than two minutes faster, but that is what the world expects of fit young 31 year olds, they are a little kinder to 42 year olds trying to cling onto their running dreams.

I am hoping to get the originally planned 31km run completed tonight after work, no time goals, only to make it feel as easy as possible and boost my confidence as the London Marathon looms ever closer.  On Monday though there was no thought of the marathon, only the joy of having given my all for 44 minutes, the smile stayed with me all the way home.