Tamworth 10k
Since the Tamworth 5 mile my sesamoiditis has been flaring up again making it quite painful on the ball of my left foot. In some ways a few rest days before the Tamworth 10k was not a bad thing but I hope it soon starts to improve otherwise its going to be hard to train effectively.
Today was the Tamworth 10k and the 2015 edition was my first race back in the running world so it was always going to be interesting to see how I compared. This time round I made sure that I had a good position at the start line and from the off I immediately settled into a fairly relaxed pace. Straight away I was about 4th or 5th but well in touch with those in front who were just a couple of metres ahead.
After the first km I moved into 3rd and gradually the three of us pulled away from the rest of the field. The first km was run in about 3.25 and I felt really relaxed; I decided not to go too fast and just stay behind the two ahead of me for the time being. It was more of the same over the next 3 km, the only slight issue being the leader made a minor wrong turn as we moved onto the canal section which forced me to take the lead for a bit.
I still felt relaxed over the fourth km and to be honest I felt like I had plenty more in the tank. We reached the half way point in around 17.40 but am not certain about the split. Either way I knew that the time was quite some way off my pb but this was excusable due to the race being fairly tactical.
I planned to hold off until about 8km before increasing the pace but in the end I decided to wind it up just before 6km. Quite quickly I opened a gap and now it was a case of making it stick. Over the next 2km I kept up my pace and the splits suggest I averaged sub 33 minute pace. I had a quick look back with 2km to go and to be honest I knew the race was mine, I kept up a high tempo but now just eased off by a few seconds and with 700 metres to go I eased off completely.
I was somewhat surprised to have won in a time of 34.14, just 16 seconds off my pb. Whilst not a pb I am actually quite pleased with the time, I ran well within myself for 6km, ran 2km hard and then the final 2km was borderline hard but not in the red zone. I suspect I could have run a good 45 seconds quicker had I needed to.
I got a nice 'trophy' for winning and was then interviewed by Tamworth TCR 100.8 FM radio. Not something I particularly enjoyed but thankfully didn't say anything too stupid!
Caption from the organisers website:
Next week I have the Birmingham Half Marathon which is when it gets a bit more serious. Chances of coming in the top 15 will be zero so is a case of running the best time I can. Today's race was a nice warm up for that!
Today was the Tamworth 10k and the 2015 edition was my first race back in the running world so it was always going to be interesting to see how I compared. This time round I made sure that I had a good position at the start line and from the off I immediately settled into a fairly relaxed pace. Straight away I was about 4th or 5th but well in touch with those in front who were just a couple of metres ahead.
Just after the start. I was about 4th or 5th at this point.
After the first km I moved into 3rd and gradually the three of us pulled away from the rest of the field. The first km was run in about 3.25 and I felt really relaxed; I decided not to go too fast and just stay behind the two ahead of me for the time being. It was more of the same over the next 3 km, the only slight issue being the leader made a minor wrong turn as we moved onto the canal section which forced me to take the lead for a bit.
I still felt relaxed over the fourth km and to be honest I felt like I had plenty more in the tank. We reached the half way point in around 17.40 but am not certain about the split. Either way I knew that the time was quite some way off my pb but this was excusable due to the race being fairly tactical.
At the half way point I was now 2nd in a group of 3
I planned to hold off until about 8km before increasing the pace but in the end I decided to wind it up just before 6km. Quite quickly I opened a gap and now it was a case of making it stick. Over the next 2km I kept up my pace and the splits suggest I averaged sub 33 minute pace. I had a quick look back with 2km to go and to be honest I knew the race was mine, I kept up a high tempo but now just eased off by a few seconds and with 700 metres to go I eased off completely.
About to cross the line - even had the energy to wave for the camera!
I was somewhat surprised to have won in a time of 34.14, just 16 seconds off my pb. Whilst not a pb I am actually quite pleased with the time, I ran well within myself for 6km, ran 2km hard and then the final 2km was borderline hard but not in the red zone. I suspect I could have run a good 45 seconds quicker had I needed to.
1st prize!
I got a nice 'trophy' for winning and was then interviewed by Tamworth TCR 100.8 FM radio. Not something I particularly enjoyed but thankfully didn't say anything too stupid!
Being interviewed for the radio
Audio of my interview. Unfortunately the playback cut out online for part of the interview so the final third doesn't make a huge amount of sense.
Caption from the organisers website:
Me coming into the finish to take the victory - easing down at this point.
Next week I have the Birmingham Half Marathon which is when it gets a bit more serious. Chances of coming in the top 15 will be zero so is a case of running the best time I can. Today's race was a nice warm up for that!
Comments
Post a Comment