I made it to my first ever 10k this morning, and I’m delighted! Thank you all on here for your advice and encouragement.
I knew the location for the run really well, and a short section of the route is on my planned parkrun circuit, but somehow I had completely ignored what I knew about the terrain. It is really steep in places, very rocky, with loose stones and tree roots, as well as exposed, stepped limestone bedrock. The first 1k was a bit of a trudge through the beautiful mediaeval town until the runners started to spread out, then into the park and down a steep flight of steps to the valley floor. As we headed up the hill out of the valley, I had to stop and walk because the path in front of me was full of other participants and looked like those shots of people queuing to climb Everest. Once we reached the top the views were magnificent and it was a gorgeous, sunny day. I enjoyed running once it was less crowded, and I never felt like I wouldn’t make it. It got very steep in places and no one ahead of me was running those so I walked up then too.
I genuinely enjoyed myself, and learnt a lot about tactics for a future run. I decided that with the terrain, I was aiming for sub 1h30, so I was happy to get an official time of 1.25.14, although I forgot to stop my watch and when I did it only made it 9.66k. So, I don’t think I’ve actually done 10k yet, but I can and I will.
No bling, but it was for breast cancer. One part of the route went past the place where I went for a tentative 500m walk three days after my surgery for breast cancer in 2016. I could hardly move my arm that day, and today I ran 10k! Yay!