I only bloody went and did it! Race report

Today I concluded my 5 month training plan to reduce my 10k time. I have learned a lot about myself and running during this time, including the fact that I started out very over ambitious about the time I could knock off my time. I began this process thinking I could get down to a 60min time from 1.16.25. I was to discover that was a totally unrealistic goal.

So today was my race day. I did look into taking part in an actual race but the closest 10k was a long drive away, so I invented a virtual race instead – The first annual Running Bloggers 10k. I was joined by Justin from beardhairinmycoffee and Declan from unironedman, in my imagination at the very least. Here is my race report 😀

Following Storm Desmond in the last 2 days, the day was surprisingly calm, clear and dry. The running field was small (just the 1 competitor) and the crowd support was limited to 1 small dog and a few sheep.
After a warm up I went off to a great start, my first 2 kms
coming in at 7.03 and 6.49. Km 3 saw the first big hill of the route followed by a good down hill stretch for km 4 which I did in 6.44. From here the route becomes a series of hills and dips, peaking at the 6km point. I hit the 5k mark in a total of 35m 48s, just 2 seconds short of my pb.
I maintained a good pace of 7.13 for km 6 but began to slow over the 7th km taking 8.28, mostly because it is nearly all up hill and a brief pause for more water. I was also a little slowed down during the 8th km as I had to negotiate a flood which meant scrambling up the side of the ditch. I was struggling by the final km, digging deep mentally and pushing my legs so I covered it in 7.04

I am delighted to have knocked 1 min 55 seconds off my previous 10k pb.