Yesterday saw me tackle my first outdoor 10k race. Having run a couple of outdoor 5ks in preparation, it was time to step it up a gear and give the 6.2 miler a whirl.
Conditions on the day weren’t too bad – it was a bit chilly and it started to spit with rain as all 600 runners warmed up with ‘dynamic Sue’. As we all lined up at the start the rain stopped (must have been a sign) and then the gun went!
I’d positioned myself towards the back of the field (50 – 60 minutes predicted time) and as we headed out of Lloyds Park and turned left towards Shirley, I was feeling good and overtook a fair few people. It was really difficult to get into any kind of rhythm until about 2k when people had bunched off.
The course was fairly flat but there were a few hills at around the 5 and 8k marks, with 8k being a long drag! I managed to get a really bad stitch at 6k as I couldn’t control my breathing, and couldn’t shift it until 8k, so this slowed me down a bit unfortunately.
As I saw the 9k barrier approach I stepped it up a gear and felt like I had quite a bit left in the tank. The final 1k was mainly downhill, so I picked up the pace and produced a good sprint finish (even if I do say so myself) in the last 200 metres, to overtake 4 people in the home straight.
I was really pleased to finish in 56mins, and feel I could have gone faster without the stitch! The good thing was, I felt I had a bit more left in the tank and wasn’t as exhausted as I thought, which has given me confidence. My weekly 5k runs in the build up to the race certainly helped.
Next stop, the Brighton half marathon! It never ends!
Here I am at the end of the race showing off my shiny 10k medal!
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