Wheaton Aston 10k
In the week leading up to Christmas my left Achilles suddenly pulled and has been tender ever since. Its been a bit of a shame as things were starting to look like they were back on the up but by all accounts I'm back to square one again. It was therefore touch and go whether I could run the Wheaton Aston 10k which I had entered some time ago. On the day of the race my ankle just felt 'weird' rather than painful so decided to run but it was very much a last minute decision.
Whilst you don't lose fitness over night I hadn't been running for best park of a week before the race, so thought a bit of rust my be there and didn't think there was much prospect of a super fast time, but you never know. In the first km I was quite some way back as seems pretty normal for me but I gradually picked off people one by one. At the end of the first km I had moved into third and about 15 metres behind the leading pair. What was surprising though was that my first kilometre was done in 3.06 which was way too fast. Over the second km I gradually picked off one of the runners ahead but was still about 15 metres behind the leader.
I thought that as the gap hadn't widened I should be able to gradually wind in the leader, but at the 4km mark it was much the same. Up to this point I was at PB pace but any prospect of a PB was more or less gone near the half way point where I ran a 3.24 km and suddenly I was dropping back. A further km at this pace meant I knew that a PB was definitely not going to happen but at the same time a race win was also out of the question now as well.
It was now a case of trying to plug away but the rust was definitely there and I suspect there was a bit of payback for the fast start. Although the lanes were fairly twisty I soon lost sight of the leader so now the only motivation was to get to the finish. At race pace my ankle was more or less trouble free although a bit grumbly at times, but not to the extent that it affected my race. I crossed the line in 33.08 so not a total disaster but a good minute down on the Cheshire 10k from a couple of months back. All a bit disappointing but not entirely unexpected. The real downside though was my ankle became very painful as the rest of the day progressed and has stayed the same at the time of writing this blog update in early January.
With hindsight I probably shouldn't have run as my ankle has been painful ever since so its back to cycling for the time being. Any thoughts of an April marathon are out of the window...
Whilst you don't lose fitness over night I hadn't been running for best park of a week before the race, so thought a bit of rust my be there and didn't think there was much prospect of a super fast time, but you never know. In the first km I was quite some way back as seems pretty normal for me but I gradually picked off people one by one. At the end of the first km I had moved into third and about 15 metres behind the leading pair. What was surprising though was that my first kilometre was done in 3.06 which was way too fast. Over the second km I gradually picked off one of the runners ahead but was still about 15 metres behind the leader.
Slow start - at the far right of the picture
I thought that as the gap hadn't widened I should be able to gradually wind in the leader, but at the 4km mark it was much the same. Up to this point I was at PB pace but any prospect of a PB was more or less gone near the half way point where I ran a 3.24 km and suddenly I was dropping back. A further km at this pace meant I knew that a PB was definitely not going to happen but at the same time a race win was also out of the question now as well.
Home straight - just want to cross the line.
Finish
It was now a case of trying to plug away but the rust was definitely there and I suspect there was a bit of payback for the fast start. Although the lanes were fairly twisty I soon lost sight of the leader so now the only motivation was to get to the finish. At race pace my ankle was more or less trouble free although a bit grumbly at times, but not to the extent that it affected my race. I crossed the line in 33.08 so not a total disaster but a good minute down on the Cheshire 10k from a couple of months back. All a bit disappointing but not entirely unexpected. The real downside though was my ankle became very painful as the rest of the day progressed and has stayed the same at the time of writing this blog update in early January.
With hindsight I probably shouldn't have run as my ankle has been painful ever since so its back to cycling for the time being. Any thoughts of an April marathon are out of the window...
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