There were no fewer than 3 course records broken on a
sunny Summer’s morning at Battersea Park yesterday. Unfortunately I knew going
into this race that the only record I’d be breaking, in fact creating, was a season’s
best. Yes, yesterday was my first 10K race since all the way back in August 2010 when I equalled my PB of 34.59. Realistically going by my time in last weekend's 5K, anything around the 36 minute mark would be an achievement.
The race was the Self Transcendence 10K, which consisted of 3 loops of
Battersea Park. I am no stranger to this course, as it’s where I did a lot of
my training last year - some painful memories! I actually did this very race last year in a time of 35:25. It is as flat as a pancake and on tarmac and therefore prime PB territory.
Joining me in the
starting line-up were a couple of familiar faces. The legendary Darren Tanner, who has been in fine form this year with three 10K
wins so far. I certainly wasn't planning on trying to keep up with him
yesterday. Also competing in his debut 10K race was my good friend Mark
Cameron. A fit young fellow who has run half and full marathons before but has never raced the 10K
distance.
Mark, Darren and myself after a succesful morning (before 9am!) |
I went into the race aiming to start conservatively as I
am sick of making the same old mistake of going out to quickly and flagging in
the later stages of races. So I let DT fire ahead of me, I had to run my own
race. It seemed to work well as I was able to settle into a pace of
around 3:30 a km and I was going past other runners even at the 4K mark. Inevitably with my lack of mileage I wasn't even able to keep up this pace and it hovered around the 3:35 mark
until the last K where I pushed the accelerator knowing I was close to home and
posted my fastest K of the race in 3:22! When I came onto the final straight, I
saw the big clock which was still under 36 mins. As soon as I realised I had a
tight chance of getting sub 36 I pressed the extra boost button and absolutely
hammered it towards the line. To my delight I crossed the in 35.58. At this point I made a lot of noise which DT had to explain
to those in earshot was partly down to my return from injury.
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Photo from uk.srichinmoyraces.org/races/london
|
The other boys added to the joy with Darren coming in 5th
place with a great time of 34:50 and Mark exceeding his expectations with a
terrific 42.35. Darren’s 5th place meant we had some interest in the
prize giving as trophies were awarded up to 7th position for men under
50s category. Below DT collects another award for his straining trophy cabinet.
![]() |
Photo from uk.srichinmoyraces.org/races/london |
Afterwards, we had a deserved breakfast in Battersea with
friends. And yes there were a couple of
lagers consumed later on in the day (in my case, after my shift at work).
Now to reflect on the race and a look at where I am now. The
good news was that I was only a minute away from last year’s PB, which is no mean feat considering the length of my layout. I did put in a hellova lot of hard training the last 3 weeks though so it just shows you what you can do if you stick religiously to a challenging training plan. The bad news
is that I am still getting various pains in my shin. I am continuing to try and combat this with a variety of measures. I
have been keeping up the yoga, and did my 2nd session in a week
today, in a bid to improve my strength and flexibility. I am also investigating
getting a proper biomechanical analysis done to try and identity what may be
causing my issues and any weaknesses that I can work on. Hopefully it will all
become clear one day, until then I’ll try and do as much running as I can
without breaking myself.
Next up is the Regent’s Park 10K on 7th
August. Then I will have a 3 weeks training cycle before another 10K in Regent’s
Park that I came 2nd in last year and equalled my PB. Sub 35 again
by the end of August would be nice, although I’ll still have the nagging
feeling of not having made any progress for an entire year. As for the course
record at Battersea Park, I’m determined to get it before I am no longer a
Londoner!
Time: 35:59 (SB)
Position: 12th/221
So happy for you. Well done B :)
ReplyDeleteLeanne xx
Good work sonny-jim ;-)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the hard work is paying off with some increasingly good times!
My training has been a touch intermittent recently, but will hopefully join you for a race at some point this year and get myself under 39' again!!
Great to see photos of Darren and Mark, well done to them both. Another good read. But did you transcend yourself? Not at all anonymous, love Couch Carrot xxx
ReplyDeleteGood to see you back up and running JB. Good luck with the next 4 and a bit weeks. I tried a variation of pilates once, it was weird. I was reluctant to try yoga, but if real men like you can do it, I might just give it a go.
ReplyDelete