Telford 10k - 23 January 2011...

Distance: 10k (6.2 miles)

In a time of...
hh:mm:ss
00:32:41 Personal Best!!!

Finishing Position: 13
Number of finishers: 516
Putting me in the top: 2.51%

This was supposed to be my final chance to break 33 minutes for 10km in 2010, that was of course until it was postponed due to bad weather. With the new date of January 23rd 2011 set, I had myself pondering on both what to do for the race, and what to expect. The reality was I wanted to smash 33 minutes, but I hadn't done any speedwork since before the Birmingham Half Marathon in October. My winter had been purely base building, with the odd XC race here and there, and I decided to do one interval session in the week leading up to race day. So realistically, what were my expectations? Well I'd been feeling good in training, but in the few XC races I'd done, I'd felt strong in the latter stages, but found my lungs were really struggling to keep up with the fast pace. I was hoping to PB, but wasn't sure if sub 33 was going to happen. Ultimately I wanted to use this as a benchmark to see where I was at, and as long as it was under 34 minutes I was happy - after all, if I can achieve a good time purely through base building, I'll be flying once the speedwork kicks in!

Enough pre-race waffle... the distance to Telford was longer than I'd expected but the journey passed relatively quickly, I warmed up, stripped into race kit and headed for the start. Minutes later we were called forwards and were underway.

The first kilometer was inevitably going to be fast, but it was also narrow, winding, and downhill. It was a struggle not to get tangled up with other runners, and I certainly felt I could've pushed on, but was mindful that I was unlikely to be running too slow, and that I needed to stay calm and steady. A gentle rise in the terrain and we were soon coming past the 1mi marker. I was oblivious to the pace but later found out I'd gone through 1mi in just under 5mins, so around 4:57 maybe? Perhaps a little bit quick but considering the downhill first kilometer it wasn't too bad at all.

Already I was breathing incredibly hard and my legs were still trying to remember how to run quickly, it was a struggle but I latched onto a group and pushed myself to hang on. I've noticed in most of my XC races this winter that I seem to be the one person to get myself into no-man's land, or unknowingly leading a group... that is I fail to stay with the group in front and they open up a gap, and there seems to be nobody alongside or immediately behind me and I'm often running alone - so for this reason I made the conscious effort to hang onto the group infront. Soon enough the inevitable happened and the group started to break up, and I found myself running far enough off the group to not benefit from their tow. I can't remember exactly the point at which this happened, and whether it was before or after the turn-back point on lap1.

Ah yes... the turn-back point... I can't think of anything worse than belting it along a path, giving it your all, to then have to slam on the anchors, turn 180 degrees around a traffic cone, and then accelerate back up to race pace again. It completely broke my stride and I struggled to settle back into a rhythm again - in fact it's coming back to me now - I think this is where I found myself falling further away from the group in front; my legs felt tired/heavy and my lungs were working overtime. I suspect that in a 10k, the legs should be the limiting factor, not the lungs, so it was frustrating that my lungs/cardio system seemed to be preventing me from going any faster - I guess this is down to the lack of speedwork!

The mile and kilometer markers (there were both), seemed somewhat sporadic and inconsistent... they did have mile and kilometer markers, but seemingly not and every mile/kilometer. As I pushed on I could see the 3mile marker up ahead and was pondering about how the first half of the race had gone and whether I could maintain pace for the second half - little doubts creeping into my mind because my heart/lungs really were going ten to the dozen (what an earth is that saying?!). No sooner had I come up to the 3 mile marker, but I saw the 5km marker ahead, and a timing clock giving a halfway split. 15:51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57... I'd gone through halfway in 15:57, 1second outside my 5k PB... erm... erm... how do I feel? Is this good news or bad news? Bad news is that I have to maintain the same pace and endure even more discomfort if I want to do the second half just as fast. The good news is I'm way ahead of target pace, and that if I could maintain this pace then I'd be sub 32min!!! Okay I was 90% sure that wasn't going to happen based on how I was feeling, but I started to feel quite relaxed about breaking 33min as long as I kept running. I soon found myself settling into a rhythm, which on reflection was probably more a case that I eased off the pace slightly, although I was catching the guy in front.

I recognised him as the guy who'd beaten me at the Snitterfield Snipe Six during the summer months of 2010. He was an 800m runner primarily, but inevitably a good 10k runner too, and I knew I was doing pretty well to be near him. I closed the gap steadily but as I drew closer, either I sped up, or he slowed, as I passed him fairly quickly. I noticed a bit of a grunt and a surge in pace as he latched onto me, trying to ensure I didn't break away - having just passed 4 miles I wasn't going to be pushing on too much just yet, but maintained pace/intensity as we approached the switchback point. He probably a few strides behind as we hit the switchback point on the second lap - far enough off my shoulder that I couldn't quite 'sense' him, but close enough so that I didn't see him as I turned the cone.

I accelerated hard away from the cone and whilst it felt very unpleasant and threw my rhythm entirely, it seemed to work well as the sound of the footsteps behind me softened and I was opening up a gap. Thoughts about my halfway split were coming back into my mind and plagued my thoughts, distracting me slightly from just pushing on as hard as possible... with tiring legs I was ready for the finish and would be pleased whatever my time was since I was fairly certain of a PB. I passed the 6mile marker which was followed immediately by a '200m to go' sign... so which was it? 10k = 6.21mi, so 6mi gone means just under 350m to go? My mind was set to ease up the pace and just finish strongly. A few people lined the sides of the path so I knew the finish was close, and as we rounded the final corner the finish came into sight, a very short distance away - far too close to make any noticeable impact on my finish time. Immediately I saw the timer, 32:35, 36... "Oooh!" I thought "Stu's PB! QUICK!!!" - Stuart Leaney, a great bloke I initially met online who'd easily outperformed me in 2010 had set his 10k PB during the summer/autumn at 32:41 (I thought - turns out it was 32:42), so with the final 20m or so I erupted into the biggest last few seconds dash ever, crossing the line on 32:41. Brilliant.

Very shortly afterwards clubmate Stuart Hopkins crossed the finish line in a big PB time for him of 33:04. Whilst I caught my breath I did the maths... "42second PB!" I thought... "Fantastic!"... true enough the result was a convincing breakthrough of the 33min barrier, and what was even more satisfying was the knowledge that the time would continue to tumble as speedwork and threshold work are introduced into training, and that there was still some scope to run a tactically better race to shave a little more time off.

A nice 2mi cool down jog followed, and I set off for home... realising that of course 32:41 is in fact 51seconds faster than 33:32, not 42seconds... woohooo!

As of 20:00 on January 23d 2011, the official UK athlete rankings had me listed as the 16th fastest 10k runner in 2011... if only that were to remain for the rest of the year!