Owls Count

On Wednesday evening I went to the first of the Yateley 10k races. I was going with a friend and we both had hectic days and little chance to think about the race until we were driving across.

The race centre organisation was good. I had no wait to pick up my number/chip, get a can of Red Bull, or drop my bag. This meant that I went out onto the start field area with plenty of time for a gentle warm up. Having had several days of really warm weather the clouds came over before we started and the wind made it chillier than I had expected.

At the start we lined up toward the back of the 40-45 minute area, as we were looking at running around 45 minutes. We were one of the first to line up and then most of the rest of the field decided to line up behind us, which meant we were further forward than we intended.

We started at a reasonable pace, but making sure that we did not get dragged along in the rush off the start. The first three km passed in 4:41, 4:42, and 4:46. This was slightly slower than we were intending, but seemed to be about the right work rate.

For the downhill section in the fourth km we picked the pace up. Though the 3:58 we went through suggests that we were going too fast.

The next three km went through in 13:07. I missed taking splits in this section, but we ran them at a fairly even pace and picked up a quick drink.

Through the eighth km we allowed the pace to drop a bit – 4:47. Definitely too slow and this was where we dropped off being able to finish in a new PB for me, but I was still hopeful that we could make sub45.

The ninth km was a bit faster – 4:34. Then we turned into that hill at the start of the last km. Oh, that was tough. I knew that sub45 was probably not going to be made, but that my friend should still get a PB. I picked up the pace and finished the last km in 4:26, with my friend 4 seconds behind. He took about twenty seconds, I think, off his PB.

I came very close to producing one of the finish line puke photos, but I just managed to hold off. The finish line goodies were very welcome.

Overall 45:01 for me. I am happy with that time – a PB would have been nice, but I did not set out to get one and have not done enough training recently to warrant one. I reckon I can go faster on that course and I am thinking about targeting a PB in second race.