Jurassic Coast 10k

HI,

Well against some advice I ran this race... my quads didn't hurt on a 3 mile run yesterday so I went ahead. I only had a twinge or two for the whole 10k and feel fine now.

The drive there was very exciting remembering the same road to my first race ever 2 years ago.

I positioned myself at the back and looked around, I saw two women about 20 years older than me and through experience thought they will probably beat me.

The race started and to my surprise I set off at the same speed as some other people rather than being at the very back of the pack. i spoke to one guy, during a slow single file stretch near the start - he said he had been roped into it by a friend (also running with him) and hadn't done this sort of thing for 20 years...

I was surprised to hear someone huffing and puffing more than i was, and told him that I had not been anything but last in a 10k before.

I found myself running between the two women I had seen at the start, and stayed running accross places that had slowed me to a walk 2 years ago. The second woman overtook me between km 2 and 3, and I stayed looking at her arse for most of the rest of the race...

There were some killer hills which I did walk up - but they slowed me to only just about being able to put one foot infront of the other last time, this time I power walked up them.

I ran to the point of exhaustion the whole way round and virtually no where was I doing anything but my fastest possible - I hardly paced myself at all and found myself virtually wheezing at times, my average heart rate was 176 (max is 189) as oppoosed to 173 on my last race... whether this is good or bad I don't know.

The long hill down and the 2km long flat bit at the end had the odd spot of walking by both me and the women I was following... I felt like - oh well if you walk - i can walk - and needed it because of the pace I was doing...

I finished in 1:16:58 roughly, (not official time - garmin time) and last time was 1:29:34
So I beat my time by 12:36!!!!!!!!

Amazing!

5 people were behind me, all of them by at least 5 minutes, and the last finisher was something like 20 mins behind me - slower than my last place time 2 years ago - I know it's not all about times but it's really nice to feel like a competitor rather than the mascot.

However it is good to know that I did my best last time as well and that I wasn't actually dragged around by the marshal - I did it on my own 2 legs!!!!

After a cup of tea I was asked by my fiance - could i walk the same course again now - and I was surprised to be able to answer that yea I could.

This makes me very glad to feel back on course for the half marathon in November (sorry to go against advice - but i really am fine and you know me I complain about every little thing)!!
Katherine