Race Date: 2nd December 2018
Location: Sheffield
This was my last 10K for this year, it’s also a race that tends to fill up within hours of opening for registration. Last year, this was my 3rd race and wanted to come back, as I had thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and the support.
I was going into this race for a steady one, and convert it as part of a longer run, as I needed to keep a long run in me, with a Marathon in 2 weeks time. So to keep that in mind, I jogged to the start line doing approx 3.5 miles. I was going to then plan to do approx 8 miles after the race.
With friends from work also joining up, I got distracted and didn’t realise the time, and at 09:25 rushed to the start line. I was pretty lucky that I managed to get to the correct position as the start line was so crowded (It seemed like there were a lot more people this year). The race started on time, and I started off at a steady pace and just started to run with feel. Keeping in mind that my previous 2 10K races, I had started too fast, I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed today’s race.
I was pretty comfortable for the first half and even managed to shout out to many Striders coming back too (which suggested I was going at a steady pace). At the turning point, I just kept a steady pace and didn’t really push on.
At around 4 miles, glanced at my watch, and it suggested that I could be on for a few seconds PB. This gave me great encouragement that I was doing very well but wanted to keep myself patient and be content that I am OK and there’s no need to push on.
When I got to around the 5.3-mile mark, Katie Morris, a fellow Strider, shouted “come on, you can do it, push from here”, or at least along those lines, This made me think “surely I can push on from here” (my competitiveness getting the better of me). So I pushed on up the hill, and then recovered on the slight flat, and took it steady on to the next hill. Katie was back with me again at around the 5.7-mile mark and gave me another push. This is where the last part of the hill started, and the end was in sight. I really pushed as hard as I could (the people around me knew that by my huffing and puffing, sorry guys), and I was going past people, that I didn’t know I could. Went through the finish line, and as I was pressing stop on the watch, it was suggested my ETA around 46 mins, which was pretty amazing, and was well chuffed with that.
All of us then got into the queue to collect our memorabilia, i.e. Pudding, Custard and a Percy Pud beanie hat. After a bit of composing and talking to fellow striders, I double checked my watch, and I realised I clocked the 10K at around 45:40, which if true was even more amazing. When I was registered for the Percy Pud the text message alert was unticked, so didn’t get the official result straight away.
My knee had started to niggle by now, so I decided to go straight home rather than doing the 8-miler that was planned, which ended up to be around 3 miles. I opened my browser on my phone, while my walking near my home, to check the sporthive page, and finally saw my result to show exactly the same as my watch.
So, the year of racing at its climax, with a great 10K PB of 28s, and beating last years time by exactly 10 mins. This puts a big massive cherry on my cake as a great celebration of a great year of running. Onwards and upwards for next year, and the Marathon in 2 weeks time
Strava Activity:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1995755849
Official Result:
https://results.sporthive.com/events/6474938763928488704/races/1/bib/754
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