Yesterday late afternoon was meant to be 15k in 85 mins at 5'40" pace, just over 2 laps of a course which I thought I remembered was about 7k. But things conspired against me 
. The lap was actually just over 8k, so I'd have had over a k to walk to get back to where I started, and I found myself approaching 14k a couple of minutes ahead of schedule. So although the closest thing the prom has got to a hill came between 15 and 16k, it seemed only sensible to go the full 10 miles to get the best idea of what might be possible come the Great South in three and a bit weeks time. The result was 16.1k in 1:28' 40", at 5'30" average pace. 90 mins had always been my private unstated target for the GSR, which I will now consider achieved 
even if a westerly gale on the day blows away any hope of a repeat performance when it matters.
Warning: boring stats follow!
The wind yesterday was a briskish westerly so I started with 2k downwind in the 5'20"s, quicker than intended. k3 was a loop out of the wind, from there to 6.5k was into the wind and at first I seemed to have settled for a steady 5'45", but that picked up again without me really noticing and at 6k I was still very close to a 5'30" average. Having turned back downwind, I spotted an enticing target ahead who dragged me to a couple of k around 5'15". This was where the possibility of extending really got into my mind, as I already knew the lap was longer than I'd thought and I seemed to be running really easily. Though I didn't realise quite how fast, as I kept missing the milestone (kstone?) summaries on my watch and don't trust the instantaneous pace readout much (the paces I'm quoting here come from analysing the Garmin stats as I type).
Having caught my unknowing target, my pace eased back towards 5'30" (entirely unconsciously), and once round the loop and back into the wind it was down to around 5'50". This next 3k was properly hard (and it's the last 3k of the GSR ). But once downwind again I was able to muster a bit of a finish, with k16 coming in 5'13" and the additional 100m needed for the 10 miles apparently knocked off in 29 secs. I then walked home on air, ever so chuffed, and promptly collapsed for the rest of the evening, unable even to write this post, though I did have the presence of wind to volunteer for Parkrun on Saturday, to stop me running again too soon .
The photo shows me setting up my music of choice (the "Chariots of Fire" soundtrack) prior to departure. The clouds look more than a little ominous, but it stayed dry, and as the shadows show, occasionally sunny. Photo credit to Dexy5 who ran 10k at her race pace at the same time, leading to three close encounters of the running kind as we passed one another at various points on the prom.
Failed 5K
10 miles in sight 🤞
Phew, what happened there?
😃yeah my Second 10 Mile 🏃♀️
