Having worked my way up to running for 10K on my own, I registered for a 10K in London's Victoria Park yesterday. It was a frosty January morning (ice on the ponds!), but over 300 runners turned out to collect their numbers and run three laps of the park. I now have an officially chip-timed 10K under my belt - 51:20 - which, thinking back six months, is a faster pace than I ran my first parkrun. I found it difficult to pace myself over 10K - starting out a bit too fast, and slowing in the later stages. The long straight to the finish line seemed to last forever, and I almost forget to keep running until I was over the timing strip, but - eight months from starting C25K - I've made another step on my running journey. Now, do I think about a half-marathon for later this year....?
First chip-timed 10K: Having worked my way up... - Bridge to 10K
First chip-timed 10K
Congratulations for completing your first 10k race , what an amazing time too.
😊😊👏👏👏👏👏
An excellent and amazing time difference in 8 months, congratulations to you EEPaul, from running a 5K parkrun in around 52 minutes, now a 10K in 51.20, what a change in less than a year.
It is indeed a great time for a first 10k, but I suspect not quite such a dramatic improvement on your first parkrun, which I guess was probably an equally impressive 26 mins-ish - noting you did say "faster pace", not "faster time" . I imagine if you're still parkrunning you are sub-23 by now?
It's ever so difficult to pace yourself over longer distances without a rigid plan and the self-discipline to stick to it. I was lucky to find myself closing in, at around the 3 mile mark, on an official pacer who was running my target time for the 10 mile Great South Run. I almost overtook him, but unusually my brain kicked in and I decided to sit there - which meant I had an armchair ride to 8 miles and was then able to finish quite strongly. If he hadn't been wearing the pacer's vest, I would have gone past and undoubtedly blown up later.
Sub-50 next time then?
Thanks, UpTheStanley (Accrington fan?). I have got my parkrun time down to just under 24 minutes (I had a six-week injury gap in the early autumn, so that may have hindered progress).
I have seen pacers at one parkrun but otherwise I try to identify someone who looks to be going about my speed (though it's a bit hit and miss). Yesterday, I had a guy running alongside me until about 6K, but he then dropped back (though when I slowed and a few people passed me, I expected him to come past too).
My watch buzzes after each kilometre, which helped me realise I had started too quickly (c 4:40 for the first km), so I throttled back a bit.
Just need to know what I am capable of and build up a bit more stamina, so that 10K isn't quite the stretch it seemed yesterday, particularly as my 10k solo runs are mostly at around 6min/km pace.
Wow - I'm really jealous of your pace over 10K, and the astonishing progress you've made. I've been running 10K once a week since just before Christmas, and it has taken until the last week or so until my pace finally steadied rather than going up and down.
Thanks for that, ForbiddenPlanet. I remain a 'beginner' runner, still learning about running and about myself as a 50-something male. The 10K was a distinct step-up from parkrun, and as I hit the late kilometres, I did wonder "what the hell am I doing?"
Wow. Well done. Great running and fantastic time. Your 5 minutes faster than me over 10K. Congratulations on your first 10K.
Damien
Many thanks, Damien. I ran cross-country and was an orienteer in my early teens. I guess my body remembers ... even 45 years later.
Congrats! Absolutely envious time. Can I ask how do you breathe while running? Do you count your breaths in and out? Breathe through your nose or mouth?
I pant! Most of my air is sucked in by my mouth - particularly in parkruns, etc. When I was a cyclist, I could breathe through my nose some of the time, but if the pace hotted up... back to gulping. Still a beginner runner, I can jog gently and breathe through my nose, but 'proper' running demands deep rasping gasps for oxygen.....