I entered my first race and on the form they asked you to estimate your time, I was wildly optimistic - does it matter?

[runner45]

I've never done a race before and two months ago when I entered I put 60 minutes for 10k - what was I thinking of? Well I just assumed because it was couch to 10K that pretty soon I'd be running 5k in 30 minutes. Not the case, by a long chalk. So will it make any difference? I don't want to find out I'm starting at the front with lots of proper runners then slipping right to the back. Or do you just start anywhere and they're only asking for interest?

[Malcy Graduate]

Nah - don't worry. If you're worried you might be "outclassed" in your allocated start place, you can drop back down the starting order to a slower group. The organisers won't have a problem with that. They only care if you try to start ahead of your allocated group - logic being that you might hold other runners up.

I like starting from the back anyway - you get that good feeling when you overtake all the slower runners. In may case, that usually means all two of them (:->)

Good luck with the run - I'm sure you'll do much better than you expect!

[OldNed Graduate]

Don't worry about it; I had to do that too and it's only so they put you in the right "holding pen" before the start. I went for 60 mins too.