Race Date: 4th November 2018
Location: Leeds
This was a 10K race, which I had booked well in advance, knowing too well that it had a PB potential. After doing the Leeds 10K, I found that the route would be very similar. With my PB of 46:08 there, I was hoping for a really good race after a few races that I had PB’d over the previous few months.
This was the key race for the end of the year, where I had my sights on a 45 min 10K and was hoping to have some good training leading into it. However, with the Striders parkrun cup just starting, we had to organise our ties in the 4 weekends from 27th October. My tie had been agreed on the 10th, but due to unforeseen circumstances I was no longer available to fulfil this, so it was determined, that I do the parkrun the day before this race. The plan was to try only to take a bit off my parkrun PB, but managed to take a hefty 39s off, and safely through to round 2. But, this also meant that my calves were quite sore, and overall I was pretty tired. There wasn’t much more than I could have given to improve the result.
My main fear now was that, I wouldn’t be ready for the race, and more importantly was afraid of getting injured. So after the parkrun, loads of stretching and foam rolling steadied the ship for me. Overall over the day, I felt pretty good and was hoping for a good day on race day.
On the morning of the race, I still felt the slight niggle of the calf, so wasn’t entirely confident on how the race would go. But going through my usual routine on any race day, hoping to get a good result overall. We arrived about an hour early, and about 10 mins walk from the start finish. Baggage and loos sorted, we lined up in our starting pens, I went for sub 50, trying to be a bit conservative as the sub 45 pen didn’t seem to really represent me at the moment.
The start was pretty good, as we primarily were flat, or slightly downhill, so the first 2 miles went to plan, and was aiming for my sub 45 target. However, I knew at some point the calves would take over, and started a bit of a niggle, also was struggling with my breathing (Which was unexpected). This prompted me to slow down a bit, and then just cracked on with HM pace throughout the race. At mile 3, had to stop for a moment to wipe sweat from my eyes, maybe I need to do something for future so that this doesn’t happen again.
In the end, I finished with a time of 46:57, i.e. 49s slower than my PB at Leeds in July earlier in the year. In reflection, with the fact I did a good time at parkrun the day before, the end result seems to be a good one.
The one thing I am starting to learn from all of my racing is that maybe shorter distances aren’t for me. With my continuous outings with the Daft’o’clock crew, long training runs, and continued good performances at the longer distances, I may start shifting my race plans to only Half Marathons in the future. But this could also be because of my training being focused on Marathons rather than 10Ks. But will see how it goes over the next few months, and what I want to focus on.
Strava Activity:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1944910651
Official Result:
https://results.sporthive.com/events/6460069711597044224/races/446670/bib/6921
