Birmingham Running Festival 10k 2019
October 19th 2019
10km
This is a new event running in Sutton Park, which is very local to me. Whilst keen on events being held there, I was a little disgruntled to find out (after entering) that in order to hold this event, my usual Saturday morning Parkrun had been cancelled as the courses and timings overlapped. What a shame!
Anyway, the morning came, clear and bright. I had considered running from home to the start (2.5 miles) and normally I would have, but my knee had given way in the bread aisle at Asda and been terribly painful the day before, so I was trying to maintain it as best I could.
I ended up parking half a mile or so away and having a surprisingly OK jog to the start. The event village was fairly efficient and I was glad of Ria & Chris' company whilst we waited the 40 or so minutes to the start (why do events make you turn up so stupidly early? this is becoming a bit of a pet peeve!). After a brief warm-up we were off!
I started in the approximately sub-50 minute bit, and was nicely distracted for the first quarter of the race by overtaking a few people, and doing the first climb to jamboree. I was nervous about the descent as this is when my knee tends to get worse, but again it was surprisingly alright. Near the finish was a short out-and-back section which I wasn't expecting, this made the lap feel very long - I noted it for lap two.
Onto the second lap I decided to try to push things a little, slowly scoping up a few more of the very thinned-out stream of runners. This time I was pretty tired bu the time I got to jamboree, and couldn't really increase my leg turnover to head downhill which shows a definite lack of speedwork training recently! That last out and back was, predictably, painful, but knowing I had a slim chance of a PB spurred me on, and I did it! By about 2 minutes....hurrah.
It's been a long long time since I raced a 10k, and this wasn't the flattest, so I was pleased with my PB, but more importantly, my knee held up well and my friends seemed to enjoy the event too.
10km
This is a new event running in Sutton Park, which is very local to me. Whilst keen on events being held there, I was a little disgruntled to find out (after entering) that in order to hold this event, my usual Saturday morning Parkrun had been cancelled as the courses and timings overlapped. What a shame!Anyway, the morning came, clear and bright. I had considered running from home to the start (2.5 miles) and normally I would have, but my knee had given way in the bread aisle at Asda and been terribly painful the day before, so I was trying to maintain it as best I could.
I ended up parking half a mile or so away and having a surprisingly OK jog to the start. The event village was fairly efficient and I was glad of Ria & Chris' company whilst we waited the 40 or so minutes to the start (why do events make you turn up so stupidly early? this is becoming a bit of a pet peeve!). After a brief warm-up we were off!
I started in the approximately sub-50 minute bit, and was nicely distracted for the first quarter of the race by overtaking a few people, and doing the first climb to jamboree. I was nervous about the descent as this is when my knee tends to get worse, but again it was surprisingly alright. Near the finish was a short out-and-back section which I wasn't expecting, this made the lap feel very long - I noted it for lap two.
Onto the second lap I decided to try to push things a little, slowly scoping up a few more of the very thinned-out stream of runners. This time I was pretty tired bu the time I got to jamboree, and couldn't really increase my leg turnover to head downhill which shows a definite lack of speedwork training recently! That last out and back was, predictably, painful, but knowing I had a slim chance of a PB spurred me on, and I did it! By about 2 minutes....hurrah.
It's been a long long time since I raced a 10k, and this wasn't the flattest, so I was pleased with my PB, but more importantly, my knee held up well and my friends seemed to enjoy the event too.
Times
Total time: 00:44:11
Standings
Age category: 6/70 9%
Gender category: 6/162 4%
Overall category: 17/266 6%
Total time: 00:44:11
Standings
Age category: 6/70 9%
Gender category: 6/162 4%
Overall category: 17/266 6%
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