10k Regent’s Park
June 7, 2008So this morning I got out of bed at a ridiculous hour to make it to Regent’s Park (sans Victoria line) in time for the June instalment of the Regent’s Park summer 10k series. I was hoping to register there and then on the day, but I’ll admit a little bit of me kind of hoped the places had all gone. However, sign up I did, and before I knew it I was contemplating the 10 kilometres that lay before me.
As I waited for the kickoff I got more and more nervous. Everybody there looked liked they really knew what they were doing. I started to feel out of my depth. I’ve run 10ks before a good few times, but not for a while. However, I really felt like I needed to do something positive and challenging to get myself back on track physically and emotionally, and this seemed as good a thing as any.
So we set off at 9am. I’d decided that as I hadn’t really trained for this one, I would make it my aim to get around without stopping to walk and try not to be last. I’m pleased to say that I accomplished both! I have quite a steady pace, and although by the 5k mark I knew this was going to be my slowest time over this distance, I think in the circumstances I was fairly happy with that. My steady pace means that I get overtaken a lot at the start, and then gradually towards the middle and end I start creeping up on the hares in true tortoise style and doing some overtaking of my own. The course was three laps, and I think in some ways that made it slightly more difficult mentally. It was at about the 4.5k mark that I started to get lapped by runners on their third lap. I kept on going regardless.
It’s strange the way that you can almost get into a trance on these sort of runs. The rhythm of your feet and your breathing can be quite hypnotic, and in hindsight I can’t really say what I was thinking about for the majority of the time. It got particularly hard around the 8k mark. At this point I’d been running for longer than I have run for quite some time and my legs suddenly felt very heavy. However, I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and by the time I hit the 9k marker I felt fine again. I even managed a bit of a spurt for the final 200 metres.
According to my less than great wristwatch, I ran it in approximately 1 hour and 6 minutes. Not great by any standards - about 4 minutes slower than my last time. However, runners were still coming in 25 minutes after I’d puffed over the finished line, and I ran the whole way in my own way and at my own pace.
I’m going to enter the same race again in September to see how much I can improve between now and then.
Watch this space!
