A very late report for this event as it took place on 14th April, but I thought I'd share it on here.
Although my 1st-year runniversary was back in January, I've been a bit slow at entering organized events. I've done 3 Park Runs and wanted to do a 10k, but wanted to wait until I felt able to do one in a fairly good time.
Since graduating C25k I had been running 10k at least once a month until I suffered from Plantar Fasciitis in October last year. This lasted for many weeks, scuppering my running and stopping me from doing anything much more than 5km at a steady pace. I finally recovered from that in January and started up doing the 10k distance again, this time once a week.
On 14th April I took my next step and entered the annual Flitwick 10k race. Although I had been running a solo 10k every week since February, I was very nervous about running this distance in an organized competition. Would I manage the distance at a reasonable speed? Would I look silly amongst real athletes? These doubts and others were going through my head right up to the point the race started.
The Flitwick 10k is a popular event attracting more than 700 runners every year. It is held on public roads, starting from the centre of the village and running a loop on rural roads back to the finish line in the park. It was a bright, sunny morning with a real chill in the air as we arrived at race control and I collected my race number and timing chip. Feeling very nervous, it was great to have my partner and our 7-year-old daughter there to support me. With 10 minutes to go before the start, we were called to the start holding area, which was divided into segments for estimated finishing times. As I had been running 10k in around 50 minutes, I planted myself at the 50-minute marker.
After a quick safety briefing, the 731 entrants walked to the start line and counted down to the start. I quickly regretted my finishing time estimate as I spent the first kilometre in a very large crowd with little space to overtake and found myself being held up. With villagers lining the streets cheering us on we very quickly reached the 1k marker and headed out onto the main street with the field of runners already spreading out nicely, creating more space to get into a nice steady rhythm. The 2k marker saw us run past the leisure centre and reach the edge of the village, turning left toward the village of Steppingley. At this point I remembered the advice of our running club coach at work and started looking for someone who I thought was running at my kind of pace to tag along with, so I singled out someone in a yellow Bedford Harriers running club vest and ran alongside him, striking up some small talk along the way. 3k and we passed the pub – so tempting to grab a pint! Past the pub and out of Steppingley we ran along a narrow twisting road which headed downhill past the 4k marker and on to the drinks station at 5k for a very welcome beaker of water to rehydrate my dry mouth. The road then turned again and we ran alongside the M1 motorway until the 6k marker, where the road suddenly became quite hilly with the daunting prospect of the 7th and 8th km being pretty much all uphill.
By the 9k marker, the hills had been dispensed with and the final kilometre to the finish line was a very welcome flat/downhill stretch. By this time my running buddy seemed to have used up all he had on those hills and dropped behind me.
As we approached the park and finish line I saw one of my daughter’s friends and her mum cheering me on, giving me an extra boost which had me speeding up for the final 100m to the line. The atmosphere at the finish was great, with lots of spectators including my 7-year-old daughter cheering us on. I gave it all I had for the last few metres, overtaking a few runners just before crossing the finish line and being handed a very welcome beaker of water and a flapjack!
Any doubts I'd had before the race had disappeared within a few minutes of the start and I really enjoyed the whole event. My official race time was 46:40 with a chip time of 46:26 (meaning that due to the volume of runners it took me 14 seconds to cross the start line after the race had started). I was placed 152nd, which doesn’t sound great, but there were 731 runners so I was fairly high up the field.
I am now looking to enter at least another 2 events this year and my next target is to do a half marathon.......
My first 10k bling
First 10K race done! 
Love Luton 10K, and a Lovely Bit of Bling
Breast cancer 10k event
My first 10k race
