First chip-timed 10K

[EEPaul]

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....?

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

Congratulations for completing your first 10k race , what an amazing time too.

😊😊👏👏👏👏👏

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10]

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.

[EEPaul Graduate10 in reply to AlMorr]

Faster *pace* than my first 5k (which was 26:26). Until May last year, I hadn't run anything more than half a mile since about 2003.

[UpTheStanley Graduate10]

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?

[EEPaul Graduate10]

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.

[UpTheStanley Graduate10 in reply to EEPaul]

You guess correctly - November was awful, December awesome, and January pretty dire so far ☹️

[EEPaul Graduate10 in reply to UpTheStanley]

I saw Crewe beat Accrington in November (I'm an Alex fan, exiled in London, but did the trip to chalk off another away ground with my son), and know the pains of being a lower-league supporter

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10]

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.

[EEPaul Graduate10 in reply to ForbiddenPlanet]

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?"

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10 in reply to EEPaul]

🤣Yes, I know the feeling. Every time I begin a 10k run I ask myself "Do you really think you can run 10K?!" But the sense of achievement I feel at the end is addictive.

[damienair Administrator]

Wow. Well done. Great running and fantastic time. Your 5 minutes faster than me over 10K. Congratulations on your first 10K.

Damien

[EEPaul Graduate10]

Many thanks, Damien. I ran cross-country and was an orienteer in my early teens. I guess my body remembers ... even 45 years later.

[MelwynD]

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?

[EEPaul Graduate10]

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.....

[MelwynD in reply to EEPaul]

Thanks for sharing.