Afternoon all. Was meant to be the Kilkenny Half-Marathon but that was cancelled, as discussed in a previous episode of Sevendaughters' Whines. The make-up event was the Sutton Six 10k in Guilden Sutton, nr. Chester. A lightly undulating road course with a field of around 300. Something made me realise that I'd not run an official 10k since early mid-June, so I felt that a PB (43.52 at this point) should be easy enough. Maybe more...
Feeling ambitious, I decided to aim for 42.00 at an even pacing strategy of 4.12 per km. I still get unduly concerned with other runners lashing it out of the gates, so the portents of doom were circling as the first km went by in 3.59. Too fast. Slowed a little and ran in the trail of the first lady. Second km was still too fast. The third was about right, but the fourth and fifth were uphill and into the wind, so by halfway I was at 21.25 and fading fast.
Six and seven passed by, struggling a bit, trying to take in oxygen but thankful for a long light decline with the wind. At 8km my watch read 35 mins flat. Something clicked (in a good way) and the final two km were the smoothest of the lot, going 4.00 & 3.57 for them, with a nice finish in 42.57 (43.01 on the gun, but I was way back at the start) and a new PB.
On the whole it was pleasing, though I'd rather have been running the HM I'd trained for 12 weeks for.
Good LSRs everyone who did one!
