Tag Archives: British 10k

A 10k PB the day after the race

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Having run a very frustrating 10k last Sunday in the British 10k, and spent pretty much all of the race not running as well as I knew I could and weaving in and out of lots of walkers, I decided to go for broke and do another 10k – on my local route – and go for it, the very next day.

No this wouldn’t normally be do-able after running a good race and pushing yourself but no normal post race DOMS or anything even close this time.  After all my other races – 1/2 and full marathons – I’ve not been able to walk or do stairs for a good few days, never mind run!  10k is shorter sure but you should still feel something, if not at least very very tired and in need of a rest.

My local route is out 5km and back 5km with only a couple of roads to cross so no big issues being forced to drop pace.  And avoiding the gate into Bushy Park – which saves a good 10 seconds in and out.

I set off with a great pace – sub-7 minutes per mile and managed to maintain it until the dreaded turn around.  It then dropped back to around 7:08 and hovered there until the last mile or so.  Then I picked up a bit more and finished with a pace of 7 minutes per mile and time of 43 minutes and 30 seconds.  A whole minute better than my recent PB on the same route and 3 minutes better than the British 10k the day before.  Nice!

It just shows how bad the race had been for me.  This one felt good and sub-40 minutes by the end of the year is a possibility – with the right speed work!

Some 5k Parkruns to be done next and at a new one at our local Crane Park – less than one mile away from us, so nice and easy to get to on a Saturday morning.

The British 10k race report – or how not to organise a race

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From what first looked like a great race, past all the great sites in this great city – London – the reality was a little different!

An early start yesterday and a train journey up to London with the Noble gang.  As normal for any London races on Sundays, the trains and tubes were full of runners, which is always a nice sight!  And a painless journey up to London.

We arrived in plenty of time so managed a little walk around to see some sites – flags up all down Regent St. ready for the Olympics and our own Noble Bolt (me).

Lots of people around Picadilly Circus all heading to the race, so we wandered along in the general direction that everyone was going.  The heavens opened briefly – as forecast – but it didn’t last long and didn’t seem to worry anyone.  It’s only a little rain!

Then a very convoluted route to walk towards the start, over a mile away and lots and lots of people.  Nic and the kids left me in the queue and headed back – for a coffee and to find a good point to cheer me on (which they did but didn’t get to see me as it took me a lot longer than planned to get there and by that time they’d headed back to where we were going to meet after – see below).

I must have been 2/3 of the way back in the pack and the start was a long long way away with a huge crowd of runners queuing up.  The photo below shows what it was like…

An amazing monument – the Bomber Command Memorial – and great to see to it.  The start for the race is actually opposite on the other side of the road, so you have to loop round very slowly.

Once across the road you can start running and then cross the start already going.  Then you realise that it’s not going to be fast.  Despite entering your predicated finish times on the entry forms, it served no purpose and everyone starts wherever they want with no time pens.  Surely this is a school boy error – every other race I’ve done sets you up in order of predicted finish times so you can at least give it your best shot and go for a PB.  But not here.  Even those crossing the start line only a minute after the gun went off, complained of the same problem.  It took me about 25 minutes to cross the start line after the official start.

The whole race is then weaving in and out of people, a lot walking, only 1km in.  What’s that all about?  Not just a few, but a lot.

Still a nice route, though you don’t notice much as you’re watching out so you don’t trip over other runners.  A bit more rain on the route just crossing Westminster Bridge but the finish wasn’t too far away so time to pick up the speed – if I can…

Managed a nice last 1/4 mile finish really picking up the speed but didn’t feel I’d put everything in when I crossed the line.  Frustrating way to finish as I’d high hopes to get a PB for the distance.  But the sheer volume of runners at all speeds, meant this was never going to happen.

My official finish time was 46 minutes 34 seconds.  So 2 minutes over my recent PB.  My Garmin time was 43 minutes 39 seconds.  How that can be 3 minutes different I’ve no idea.  The Garmin also said I’d still got 0.17 miles to run.  That I can understand as it loses the signal in the tunnels (x3) but the time should still be correct.  So around 45-46 minutes I think.  Which given the much slower pace is ok.  Placing was 1195 out of 25,000 ish – maybe even near 30,000 – so not bad…

A couple of other photos from the race…

A few shots of the elite guys – 29 minutes to finish.  Awesome stuff…

 

And me after meeting my support crew, at Trafalgar Square, complete with my finishers medal…

Now the bad bits and looking at race reviews and reports from previous years, this happens every year.  That’s a bit shocking and how they’ve not listened and sorted these problems out is anyone’s guess.  Sponsored by a big name like Nike, surely it’s in their interest to get it right?  Just do it?  No?

To kick things off some reviews – from Runners World readers – of the 2010 and 2011 races…

Hmm, I didn’t find these before, but they’ve got it spot it.  And there’s more…

  • Charging 50p for toilets along the route is a joke.  They need to be free.  See how the London Marathon or Royal Parks 1/2 do it.  The £50 or £32 race fee should fund hiring toilets.  You don’t need many for 10k.
  • Medals not given as you finish but a mile later when collecting your bags is daft.  With my family there to support me, I didn’t have bags to collect but had to walk to where the bags were to collect the medal.  When you finish, you’re in a good mood, you should get a “Well done” and a medal around your neck.  Not thrown in a bag by some steward 20 minutes later who’s grumpy.
  • The £50 gold place I paid was for 2 t-shirts which I got but it seems plenty of others didn’t and there was other issues with t-shirts.  Not a big problem for me, for me the £50 was to race which I thought was ok.  But if you’re promising certain goodies as well then you need to stick to it.
  • Better signage from about 7km.  Mentioned by others as well.  Not brilliant and difficult to know how much further to go (unless you’ve got a watch / GPS tracker).  And there’s only 10 markers needed, it’s not asking for much.
  • Start pens by predicted finish times or make it clear it’s a fun run and people shouldn’t be going for PBs.  Again everyone else does this and it’s not new!  Or even different starting locations.
  • A more direct walk to the start – getting everyone to walk over a mile isn’t the way to do it.
  • This may just be me, but if you’re going to have Her Majesty’s Life Guard Band playing 3 verses of the National Anthem, encourage people to sing along at least to the first one.  No-one was singing, apart from me – at least where I was in the queue.
  • Plan for enough medals.  Yes they ran out.  Luckily I got one.  How they can run out is beyond me.  Do they not know how many people were expected to finish?  Kind of equals the number who started plus lets add a few extra, doesn’t it?  To finish and not get a medal sucks big time.

Most of these are basic issues and to say this run has been going a fair few years, it’s a disgrace really that the organisation of it is getting stick like this, year after year!  And it’s not just me – I promise.  Sure I’m quick to highlight when service (yes this is a service) is rubbish but only when it’s that bad it needs to be pointed out.

See Runners World reviews for the race this year…

And on the British 10k Facebook page for this year…

Yes it is the first 10k race I’ve done, I’m more used to 1/2 marathons and full marathons, but should the organisation be any different?  No.  Would I run this one again?  I don’t know.  The route is amazing and I get real goosebumps when running through London past all the great sites but the lack of good organisation is very disappointing.  Another 10k definitely and one in London – maybe the Bupa one has a lot of good reviews and feedback.

British10k only 3 days away – last minute preparation time

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Less than 72 hours to go until the race on Sunday!

Training pretty much all done.  Not too worried about the distance, it’s more doing it in a good time and with 25,000 other people running, not being caught up in the pack and my starting pace not what I want.  Want to get sub-45 minutes which I know I can do.  Sub-44 even better and race day adrenaline might get me there.

The race starts at 9:35am and it’s a 2km walk to the start from tube / rail drop off.  Not a problem, just need to leave enough time.  Still trying to figure out where Nic and the little Nobles can go to get best views of the runners, with a hope of seeing me!

2 minutes before the start, the Band of Her Majesty’s Lifeguards, will be playing the National Anthem.  A very cool way to start.

Sounds like it’s going to be a busy busy start.  25,000 runners is huge and all on the streets of this great city – closed off again to traffic.

Day of rest today after a 10k training run yesterday.  Was aiming for sub-45 minutes but got hit by a car – nice – when crossing a drive.  Nothing major, all ok, just pushed back a little bit and think the driver was more shook up than me!  Forgot to stop the watch though so it meant about 45 seconds extra on the time.

So what to do in the last 3 days to make sure we’re all ready for the big day…

  1. One last easy training run tomorrow – 48 hours before.
  2. Sort out train and journey times for Sunday morning – it’s an early start.
  3. Figure out where the Noble fans will go and where to meet them after.
  4. Pasta action for the next few nights – carb loading.
  5. Plenty of water – hydration.
  6. Make sure the trusty Garmin watch is fully charged and ready to go.
  7. Drinks and Jelly beans (Jelly Belly of course) for post-race refreshments.

And – the big one – don’t forget the Vaseline (to stop chaffed legs and the deadly runners nipples).  Forgot this a few times over the last few weeks – stupid mistake – and chaffed legs (top of thighs) are back.  Very sore.  Daily moisturising needed to fix it.  Lots of Vaseline needed for Sunday.  Go for Vaseline – not the expensive creams.  See my last blog post on this – “Runners nipples the conclusion – I’ve cracked the problem“.

Wish me luck!

Love this quote from Mo Farah…

Don’t dream of winning, train for it.

Another hard run – wrong time of the day

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Yes it’s that time of the year – pollen season is here – and the associated hayfever for millions of people.

This time of year running presents new challenges – avoiding grass and parks and generally nice outdoors type areas.  Training plans need adjusting and fine tuning to run in more built-up areas and at different times of the day.  The worst time to run is late morning and early afternoon, when the pollen count is generally at its highest.  So an early morning or evening run sound good.

Why then did I ignore this advice today?  And run on empty again (yes I’ve done this before and know it’s not good)!

An early start today and little breakfast, a busy morning in London (for a very enjoyable Digital Leaders Think Tank roundtable session (more on this in a later post) at the top of 30 St. Mary Axe – otherwise known as The Gherkin – with some spectacular views of London – see below) and hot and muggy weather.  Far from ideal conditions to do a 10k run with a decent time.

But it was on the plan so we did it.  Same route as the last couple of 10k training runs – nice and easy, and not much grass along the way.  Times for my 10k training runs so far vary from 44 1/2 minutes to 47 1/2 minutes – almost a 10% difference.  Today was the higher end – just over 47 1/2 minutes.  Rubbish.  But it should have been expected for all the reasons above.  See my earlier posts for some other thoughts on this.

Only just over one week to go until the British 10k.  2 more training runs planned this week and then 3 next.  Planning to leave 1-2 days between the last training run and the actual race.  With a 9:35am start and in central London, not in the parks, it should be a good time to run.

Just need to remember to eat first…!

The 45 minute barrier has been cracked again!

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Back to the running theme.  Only 3.5 weeks until the British 10k.  Here’s a quick reminder of the route of the race…

It goes past some of London’s best known (and best) sites and we’ll be able to wave (quickly) at the Queen in Buckingham Palace on way past.  With all the roads closed running along routes like this, it’s special and reminds you what a cool city London is.

For more details on the route and history around the places see below…

It’s going to be a busy race – with some 25,000 runners expected but they’ll be a real buzz about.  The Olympics starts here only a few weeks after and part of the route is the same as planned Olympic Marathon route – very cool.

It starts at 9:35 I think – so not too early.  It’s always a joy commuting up to central London for that time on a Sunday morning though – and typically there’s a normal Sunday train schedule running (i.e. not very frequent).

I’m aiming for a finish time of around 43 minutes on the day.  It may be difficult to start at the right pace depending on people traffic but the overall time is do-able.  I did a great 10k run (on the local roads) a week after the London Marathon and got just under 45 minutes.  A few others since then a bit slower but then a great great run yesterday (same route) and 30 seconds faster.  Sub-44 or even sub-43 is a possibility!

The winner last year came home in just over 29 minutes – that’s insane and awesome.  At the 4 minutes 35 seconds per mile pace again.  Which means they’re 2 miles ahead of me then – 30% of the race.  Amazing!

I’m really looking forward to this run and pushing myself.

How to focus in the age of distraction? And a 10k run.

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A superb mind-map from Learning Fundamentals in Australia about how to focus in the age of distraction…

With so much going on these days and the constant and growing need to feel and be connected, this is a great little pointer for how to better manage it all, and not get too consumed by it.

  • How often do you check e-mails?
  • Do you turn your phone off?
  • Do you use to-do lists?
  • Is there too much digital information?
  • Do you get much exercise?

A great link there back to running.  Running for me is a great distractor in itself – I’ve said before I don’t listen to music when I run and that helps me focus my mind on the running.  The pure freedom of just getting out and running is unbeatable and with the ability to keep pushing and improving yourself.

It’s the British 10k in less than one month’s time.  My training plan is going ok.  4 runs per week being done – pretty much, bar the week when my sister was over and a cold got the better of me.  Aiming for low 40 something minutes which I know I can do – need to focus on more speed work over the next 4 weeks.  Some great runs this week in the great British June weather – gales (which almost did knock me over), heavy rain (yes I got drenched) and sun!

What to do next and have you recovered?

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That’s it all over – all those months of training and 26.2 miles around London all done.  For charity, for fun, for your own PB, just to say you’ve done it or for a million other great reasons.  5 days on from the big event, the aches and pains just about gone, walking normally, going down stairs freely and back maybe doing a few easy runs!

The first few days are difficult and the legs don’t work as well as they should and stairs are very painful.  It’s amazing how different a 23 mile training run is to the actual 26.2 mile race.  For all my training runs over 20 miles, just showered and stretched after each and then carried on as normal and no issues the next day.  But add just 3 more miles and race conditions and it’s a whole different ball game.  When I did the London Marathon first back in 2009 it literally took about 2 weeks to recover.  This time 5 days – so something in the training worked.

For the recovery a number of things you need to do:

  1. Move – don’t just sit down and do nothing.
  2. Raise the legs – when you can when you are sitting down.
  3. Massage – to help those muscles, as soon as possible after the run.
  4. Ice packs or ice baths – haven’t tried these myself but people swear by them.
  5. Nutrition – water, carbohydrates and proteins.
  6. Active rest – do some easy exercise soon.

Number 6 is what seemed to be the transition point for me.  Legs – just legs nothing else really – very sore, until yesterday when I went for an easy 4 mile run with my gorgeous wife (owner of Snowballs in Summer).  Very easy and slow pace.  And after that legs pretty much back to normal.

Some great other links for articles on post-marathon recovery are:

How are your legs?

And then once recovered, what do you do next?  Training for these babies is full on and gives you a real focus.  Running 4+ days a week and doing more and more miles and seeing improvements along the way, really gives you a boost and focuses the mind.  So when it’s all over, there’s a gap – at least for a bit.  For a lot of people if you don’t enter races that often, what now?  Enter another race.  This year is London’s year and there are lots of great running events on.  One I’d only just heard about is the British 10k London on Sunday 8th July – a week or so before the London Olympics and covering part of the planned Olympic Marathon route.  Covers a lot of the great sights you see on the London Marathon and the Royal Parks Foundation 1/2 and “only” 6.25 miles (10km) and 25,000 people – so a great crowd running through normally busy roads in central London.  See the route plan below:

Even better as well as the ballot places, there are guaranteed places for a bargain price of £50 – only £18 ish more than the ballot place.  What a deal.  I couldn’t refuse and got myself a place last night.  A very different distance to the longer runs and needs different training.  Need to figure that out next and what sort of time I want to try and aim for.

And the event video from 2011…

Don’t forget of course the ballot for the Virgin London Marathon (VLM) 2013 opens on Monday 30th April – next week – and the number of ballot places are expected to fill up very quickly.