Run > Race

SILVERSTONE 10KMS - 46.30 (STOPWATCH) 46.40 (OFFICIAL - GUN TO FINISH) - PLACED 325TH OF 805 FINISHERS - Last training session was on Sunday, when I managed about quarter of an hour on the gym treadmill before coming off exhausted. It didn't bode well. However, after a couple of really good nights' sleep and a lovely soak in the gym jacuzzi before being picked up on race-day, I arrived at Silverstone with a positive mindset. However, huddled out of the wind in one of the pit-lane garages, I got more and more intimidated by the seeming hundreds of 'whippets' passing by in big-name club vests. Being that thin just isn't natural - is it? Dark irrational thoughts went through my mind as I looked down at the veritable truck tyre of fat around my aging, 15 stone, middle-aged frame. Would I actually be last? Worse still, would I be lapped? Would I hell! This was my first outing as an MK Lakeside Runner and I was going to turn in a half-decent run if it killed me. Anyway, enough of the exciting build-up. What of the race itself? Well, I started really 'sparkily' and clocked an excellent first km. So far, so good. I got progressively slower through the next four kms of the first lap (especially the section into a headwind), but still went through half-way in a respectable 23.19. The second lap was a little more 'up and down' time-wise, as my treadmill softened legs started to find the rock-hard tarmac of the circuit a little wearing. But, I got my second wind around the 9km marker and (as I do at the end of every treadmill session) I logged a 'perky' final km. This made for a 'negative split' (posy running term) second half of 23.11. My stop-watch (start to finish) time was 46.30. My official (gun to finish) time was 46.40, placing me 325th of 805 finishers. (Comment - What's the point of inaccurate "official" times?) (KM splits - 4.28 / 4.38 / 4.41 / 4.44 / 4.48 / 4.38 / 4.47 / 4.35 / 4.43 / 4.28)