Photograph: Steven Paston/PA
Apologies for the late debrief this morning, I’m just back at the computer after the formerly-known-as-Bupa-10km. Now known as the Vitality 10km, but I can’t quite get my head around that. I’d forgotten quite what a massive race it is – a huge field, starting more or less exactly where the London Marathon finishes, and looping around central London to St Paul’s and back.
Theoretically – and certainly for other people – it’s a fast course, though it never seems to work out that way for me. I made the mistake of starting too far back and spent the first two miles – a fair proportion of the race – trying to get past people. Then again, I’m not sure my heart was really in a proper “go for a PB race”, so perhaps I’m just making excuses. I finished in a negative split, which has to be a first for a 10km race for me, and a nowhere-near-PB time that still, I reckon, just about qualifies as a hard training workout. I’ve realised from previous summers of 10km races that I need a good run up at these things – starting with a good tempo run, building on that in a series of races through the summer. So let’s call this a season opener …
Not so for some of my club-mates, though – my congrats today go to my team-mates Nick and Julia, both of whom got PBs. The latter was going for her first sub-40 and didn’t so much get it as zoom straight past it, scoffing in the general direction of 39 minutes, too, to finish in 38min 36sec. I am in awe.
So, did you race this weekend? Do you, like me, need a few run-ups at a decent 10km race or are you flying from the word go? (If so, can I borrow your legs?) As always, your triumphs, despair, advice and stories below the line. Wouldn’t be Monday without them.
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