Regents Park 10K - May

It was a bit of a rush this morning making it down to the start line, what with the rest of the family heading to the beach, and I had to run straight from the car into a truncated warm-up and then directly to the start line. So I didn't get a chance to relax, stretch or even check out the crowd for a few familiar faces before we lined up for the starting gun. Fair enough it wasn't a big problem as I've been in this position many, many times before but when we did kick off I was probably forty or so bodies back from the front. So for the first lap I concentrated on steadily making my way through the pack and generally speaking this went ok although my progress was slower then the ideal.

Then at the 4km mark a rocket in black drew up alongside just as I'd tucked in behind someone else for a bit of shelter from the incessant wind; I knew in that instant that this was a race-changing moment. If I could get behind this guy and stick with him for a while then I wouldn't regret it - possibly! So for the next 1000m my pace went from 3:49 min/km to 3:46 min/km. It doesn't sound like much does it? Well maybe except for the fact that the previous km was all downhill and this km was all uphill and I was flying past the runners in front. An amazing feeling but I was absolutely at the limit; an assessment cemented when I discovered that my pacer was looking for a 37:30 finish and had the speed to match. So at just after 5km I dropped back and considered my options....

To a degree I'd rather committed myself up to this point and I certainly felt the strain (if my rabid foaming at the mouth was any giveaway). So I resolved to ease back a little and try to hold my hard-won position. For a little while this plan worked well and I managed to recover; in fact I recovered to such a degree that I began eating into the lead that the two guys in front of me had. With every km I managed to drag myself a little closer until the 8km mark where I caught, and then passed, the pair with another full-on effort. Looking back I'm amazed that I was able to pull this together but throughout the race each push like this was followed by a scaling-back of effort and this approach seems to work for me.

In fact it worked so well that the tenth km was my fastest of the race at 3:42 min/km pace (very definitely my top-end race speed) and I felt like I was both in control physically and also running with a light, smooth style. I only ever experience this type of body-and-mind intensity when racing and it's simultaneously blissfully energising and painfully enervating. That'll be why a couple of rascals came charging past me right on the line, when I had nothing left to give, bumping my from a joyous 16th place to a pleasing 18th place. I forgive them though as they didn't stop me being the first V40 home this month out of 427 finishers.

This is a result that I can live with (well that and stopping the clock at 38:27).

Distance: 11.1 miles

Time: 1h 17m 16s