Tuesday 13 December 2016

Telford 10k 15 seconds too slow

I was asked to represent North Wales in this 10k which was an elite race. I am not sure what the qualification was but I think I heard someone say sub 35 min. The runners in the race were crazy fast. I’ve never experienced a race like this in my 10 years of running. Usually I’m racing in the top five but I finished 89th! My time was 33mins3second which is just a second or so over my PB. I was a bit frustrated, not with how many people were quicker than me but by my time. I was expecting 32mins45 seconds and was on for that time until about 4 miles in. I lost concentration. I had a slight stitch and started to feel sorry for myself. I even thought about dropping out. But then at 4.8miles I refocused and told myself to pick up the pace and stop being slow. I’d trained hard for this so make the most of it. Over the last mile I went for it, running with a stitch but putting up with it. But the problem was that when the stitch started I slowed a little and lost 15 seconds. It’s strange how just a small relapse in concentration can take 15 seconds. Usually 12 seconds wouldn’t make a difference but in the race it would have. I really wanted a 32:45, it sounds a lot quicker than 33:03; minutes quicker. O well, I can’t really grumble because it was a life experience and I did one of my quickest 10ks ever.

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