Did my 10K road race on Saturday 24th, abysmal weather - strong winds (18 mph average and 25mph gusts) and rain. The first 4k were straight into the wind and rain, could hardly see at one point the rain was lashing my face so much and I was freezing! After the first 4K conditions improved slightly and it stopped raining and warmed up a bit but I was absolutely shattered by 8K, I was convinced I was about to bonk (didn't think that was possible at 10K but hey ho) as I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep. I slowed to a shuffle just before the 9k mark and gave myself a stern talking to and picked up the pace to the end to make sure I beat last years time. Results time was 51.25 which was faster than last years running of this race at 52.11 but I found it much harder this year. My km splits show I actually ran a fairly even paced race however I paid for the effort expended on the first 4K in the later stages.

My lack of speedwork and road endurance really showed for this 10K as I have been focussed on running hills and mud so I have some work to do to get to my goal of sub 50 minutes. On the plus side I did a very good warmup and my body was ready for the hard pace from the off which I was pleased about.