Time for another 10k! This one was the Alice Holt 10k as organised by Farnham Runners. The forest is just up the road from me and I had been doing a few training runs there. Another link is that the speed training sessions that I have been doing recently have been with the club.
I was back to regular refereeing and had even managed 10k in training so my fitness levels were better than last time. This was good as I was disappointed with my performance at the Hard As Snails 10k and knew I had to do a lot better!
The weather was wonderful. The course was certainly easier going than the Hard As Snails event so I suppose in a way I was well prepared (despite my lack of hill training in general…again!). It was perhaps a little cruel of the organisers to put the same evil hill at both 4km and 9km though due to the looping nature of the route.
I certainly welcomed sponges being made available at the water stations as it tends to be over-heating that hampers my performance before my cardio or muscles start to give in. One of those little touches that makes all the difference to an event.
My chip time was 52:19 which ranked me 210th out of 428 runners. More importantly, it is my all-time PB. That said, I have a long way to go to get the sorts of times I would be proud of. My style is burst running which suits refereeing perfectly but I still want to be much faster!
Now, by way of comparison, here is me before the race:
… and here I am finishing, not quite as fresh faced! I am bouncing after the sprint to make sure I land on the timing mats properly!