Landed back home on Satruday morning. Rain and traffic on the M25 - welcome home! Family were very glad to see me, and the kids were trying to break in to my suitcase to see if I'd brought them anything.
Usual Saturday afternoon at the in-laws for tea and cake, followed by a very early night. Sunday was a local Christening followed by a quick 4km run to test out the new ASICS.
Monday was the bank holiday 10km at Shinfield - very local to me. I'd signed up before I flew out to the US. I thought it would be good to benchmark where I am for that distance. I've not run a 10km race since last July, when I was on the back of Ironman, so it hurt. I PB'd the year before (2011) at 46:04 so was looking for some improvement.
What I came away with was a healthy respect for the 10km distance...
For my warmup I cycled to the event - about 10km away, then did some running with a few pick ups to get going. Much like Horst my legs felt heavy. The sun was beating down and I felt very warm.
I started about 3 or 4 rows back, and saw a sign saying 40-50 minutes. There was not room to move forward to the sub 40 rows, though the start was like a cross country start.
The hooter went and I was over the line 5s afterwards. There were a lot of people trying to get moving and on the first corner I got barged and flew out of the pack, being caught by a fellow runner. Thanks for keeping me upright.
First km was fairly speedy, then we turned on to a gravel track with a slight incline. By the 2km sign my Garmin was beeping way in advance. I was pegging at 4 minutes/km and hoping to get some time in the bag for the second half Unfortunately I hit the 5km sign at 20 minutes exactly. Not good for my goal. From this point onwards the Garmin beeped earlier and earlier and the pace dropped more and more. Throughout I was neck and neck with a guy who was had been employing a run/walk strategy since 1km. He was hurting from the go and hanging on.
The last km was downhill and we put in a sprint. Despite my best efforts I did not overtake him, but gained a place outright and crossed the line at the same time as a female.
Due to the vagaries of the Gun vs Chip timing used in running races I placed better than the run/walker even though I finished after him; he'd taken longer between the start & finish lines. I also finished ahead of the 3rd female. The quality in a running race is often higher than a triathlon or duathlon.
Splits were: 3:43, 3:59, 3:58, 4:02, 4:13, 4:23, 4:12, 4:19, 4:27, 3:56, 0:02
I came in at 41:13 chip time and 69th of 691. A great PB by 4m53s, but not near the sub 40 I was after. Obviously this is because my run mileage has been extremely poor of late - just ticking over for the Europeans. Last week in the US didn't help either. Mental attitude is also another factor; perhaps I didn't want a sub 40.
Still, Yateley 10km series coming up, so a chance to redeem myself.
Tonight's recovery was a tri club chaingang :)
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