No matter your level of fitness Anyone… Anyone! Can complete a 10K
Not so fresh from my two weeks rest after the London Marathon, I carried on running through my dull aches, especially first thing in the morning heading down the stairs and my Achilles tendons were both really stiff and starting to hurt? And simply walking down 12 steps of stairs felt more like I was descending Mount Everest but… give it an hour or two and the pain would go so surely this is nothing to worry about… surely? << (spot the mistake)
I found myself fit enough that I could run a mile comfortably on average around 6:30 pace. So with bit of luck for the Bluewater 10K I may just be able to push hard and sneak under the 40 minute barrier? This was a SheRunsHeRuns now Sweatshop 10K race around the very large shopping centre of Bluewater and surrounding area. I ran this event for the first time in 2009 and was impressed with the pre race t shirt, race and after race goody bag. The free t shirt they sent to you albeit the sizes they supplied do come into question? Suddenly my usual medium was way too small and I needed to swap this on race day for an extra large?
There appeared to be about 3-4,000 runners all congregating in one of the car parks behind House of Fraser and we were greeted with a few stalls and a loud PA, before making your way up the flyover towards the start line. This year was dark and overcast with a slight chill, which was a complete contrast to last years heat, which even at such an early start, was a struggle to run in!
The usual faces from the Sweatshop Saturday morning 4K runs were ever present along with a few club runners. I performed my warm up early and took my place fairly near the front of the field. It then amazed me seeing officials escorting a group of Africans/Kenyans to the very front with seconds to spare to the start of the race? Who are they? What’s going on? Can they not see the queue of runners behind! As it happens these runners would turn out to be the eventual prizewinners in both men’s and women’s races. Got me thinking….. If the organisers “arranged” for these runners to run and then these runners claimed the prize money? Isn’t this some sort of fix? As other runners obviously haven’t got a chance of winning then have we!! Hmmmm
Enough of this moaning it was time for me to get into the zone and concentrate on maintaining my pace. The Mayor of Dartford started the race with his hooter and as usual, I went tearing off with the other runners. This course is by no means flat and where we started at the top of the flyover and headed slightly downhill, I found myself tearing off with the other runners that is until you bear left (Grrrrr Reginald D Hunter gag??) and up an incline. By now realisation reminds me I can not maintain this pace and have to back off. I have found myself breathing rather heavily and to be honest I don’t think I’ve run through the first kilometre marker yet? While my body re-adjusts I’m overtaken by a handful of runners until I have actually re found my form and I’m actually running with a group of four runners who maybe without knowing it we’re helping each other as we each take it in turns to run to the front. Bizarrely enough I seem strongest when it comes to inclines but on the flat stretches, I fell behind? (Hmmm note to self there during my next training). As per each kilometre, appear to be under the magic 4 minutes. Well that is until we go to half why around the place called Stone and there is a long incline and then running back towards Bluewater itself we’re faced with several hills and descent’s before the last decent back towards the dual carriage way to the finish.
As you can see any advantage I had running below 4 minute kilometre meaning a sub 40 minute race would be quickly wiped away due to the test this course has now thrown in front of us. The group of four now appears to be two but the thought of running a sub 40 albeit “just” was seriously spurring me onwards. It was starting to hurt especially as there was one more incline back to the finish line. A few spectators were standing on the bridge almost obscuring the 800metres to go sign. Absolutely out of breath from some sort of sprint finish I did cross the line in 39:36. Wow somehow I did have a few seconds to spare on each kilometre marking so it seemed. Well chuffed I collected my absolutely packed goody bag and rewarded myself with a sports massage from the legendary Chris Domoney of the Sports Clinic shop at Bluewater. He was a very busy man that day but managed to squeeze me in seeing him. Proper wise old owl when it comes to running. Please pay him a visit and say i said Hi
Garmin 305 Data:-
Congrats on 39:36 which is a teriffic time! I find myself a couple of years infront of the big 40, and even if it has been a few years since my last run below 40 min will have another go next spring. Proper training in the winter and some intervalls in March/April and hopefully Im there.
ReplyDeleteGood read also:)