Just back from the second of the six Olympic Park 10km series races. Although I had a Garmin failure at the start which meant I didn't record the first 600 metres or so, looking at the 'gun time' at the end, I have a feeling that I went round about 20 seconds faster than last months race. The official results are published in the next couple of days and I'm looking forward to seeing them. Looking for something around 1h3m40s.
A bigger field this time, around 200 plus runners with a very wide variety of ability indeed. Perhaps no more than 10 people finished behind me, but that's not important. For me I had two objectives, to bring my time down again and more importantly to go around at an even pace. Looks like it could be ticks in both boxes, so I'm pretty happy about that.
The organisation is first rate. There was a different "MC" this time who announced pre race on the megaphone that whether you smile or grimace, they look the same on the official photos, so you might as well smile! The course is three circuits of the Velodrome end of the park and the MC stood at the finish line yelling encouragement as we crossed the line. If you weren't sprinting to the line on that last lap, you'd have to answer to him! Tongue in cheek maybe, but it did make me put everything into that last 100 metres. One thing that's very important. Lots of people remained at the finish line and clapped home us tail Enders. I did the same for those that cam in after me. You could see it was appreciated and it's very much in the spirit of C25K. No elitist nonsense here.
And now I have a second shiny to go with the first one - and its a different colour too! I'm determined to collect the set. Next race takes place on the first Saturday in December. I ache right now, but the moment I get over that, I'll be looking forward to it again.
A hot 10K
First medal (ever!)
Race Report: Bayer Newbury 10km
