This was the first race where I’d actually set what I’d consider to be realistic targets for myself. Ones actually based on my current ability and what I thought I’d be able to add onto that under race conditions with the adrenaline flowing.
Having an existing 10km PB of 44:10 (on an extremely hilly course) meant I was planning aggressively to knock chunks out of it and as such I’d decided to really just go for it and set an “A” target of a sub 40 minute run but having not run the course before I also figured it might be prudent to actually set a couple of secondary goals to keep me going. The “B” goal was a 42 minute run and “C” was a PB of any sort.
In the end, there was a great turnout and I figured there was no point messing about trying to weave in and out of the 780 entrants so started about 6 rows back from the line and went out at a good pace in order to avoid traffic and give myself a good base for the rest of the race. That worked well and ultimately even though my final 2 mile lap times were significantly down I’m happy with my pacing on the day, there was a long slog up an incline heading into mile 5 and another reasonable climb to mile 6 to the finish and on tired legs I just dropped back a bit more despite giving my all.
Lap times: (Miles)
- 6:34
- 6:41
- 6:28
- 6:32
- 7:13
- 7:10 (1:53 for the last .2 mile)
Can’t really complain at that. My chip time was 42:12, good enough to finish 105/780 – just shy of 2 minutes off my previous PB and I know with a little extra prep I’m not far from a 40 minute 10k. Looking forward to Bradford 10k on 2nd December to give it another go.
Endomondo reports I also managed a couple of best distances:
- 1 km – 3m:49s
- 5 km – 20m:19s
- 10 km – 41m:58s