Telford 10K and Personal Best!

Today was the Telford 10K which is just under an hour from me here in Oswestry. My mum was visiting this weekend so it was super nice to have company for the ride there, the waiting around before and for someone to congratulate me at the end.

The weather was just fine. Cold and dry.  I wore my Underarmour tights, Sugoi skirt, an sleeveless top under an Underarmour cold weather long sleeved top. Hat and gloves too.

There was a decent crowd and a narrow start.  I sneaked in to a potentially selfish spot not very far from the front.  Its hard to judge the speed of a crowd and they had an elite sub 40 minute race earlier on so as i was aiming for 56 minutes i didn’t want to be too far back.  And I also didn’t want to walk for ages up to the start as i wanted to start my clock on the gun start to see what i could get, rather than on the start line.  What i actually did was press lap at the start line – or what i assumed it to be as there really wasn’t a defined line anywhere.

 

The start was signalled and i was carried along with the crowds. Feeling good and knowing i wasn’t sticking to my 9 minute mile pace – my race plan so to speak, i just went with it.  There was a big down hill at the start then two laps to the finish. My fist mile was 8:05 and i panicked a bit. I knew i couldn’t sustain this for another 5 miles.  I was being passed continuously and found it hard to slow down.  The second mile 8:23 and the third mile at 8:37 made me realise that perhaps i could maintain this pace till the end.  Mum was there about half way and took some photos. Its nice to have supporters on the side lines. 

I was feeling pretty good. I knew it was a flat course as i was coming to the second lap.  I really wanted a negative split and so i pushed. Mile four 8:25 and only 2 to go.  I picked it up some more. Now i was passing others steadily. Mile five 8:13 and i turned it up another notch.  Mile six 8:01 and running in for the last 200m – i LOVE this part as i speed up the whole way, i am running in long strides, faster than any other time i run, this is when i feel like a real racer, a real runner, an athlete .2miles @7:16 pace. 

FINISH    51:46 

Avg pace 8:16

Excellent, awesome, thrilled, stoked, joyous and surprised. I was hoping to beat the 56 minute as i knew it was a flat course, but i never thought i would get so close to the average pace of my 5K PB which was 8:11.