As you can see from the screenshot massive GPS fail - more on that later.
A race in both my Club Championship and the Sussex Grand Prix, Crowborough 10k is a two lap affair. It is a challenging course featuring a ford and what one member of my club described as a "slight incline" and we all know what that means!
I arrived in plenty of time to collect my number and warm up. I even made the the team photo - I'm usually in the loo queue. Although it had been raining when we left Hastings the weather had cleared by the start of the race and I felt a tad overdressed. I'd borrowed my son's old football under top as I thought I'd be too cold in just my club vest. The first mile or so was downhill and I started to worry that I was going to be way too warm but luckily my body temperature seemed to regulate itself and I didn't get any hotter. I was careful at the start not to go too fast as I knew what was coming - what goes down must go up and boy did it go up! At the bottom of the climb we came to the ford and the marshal shouted at us to keep left to run through it or right to use the bridge. I had every intention of keeping to the racing line and going through it until I saw how deep it was - I'm pretty short and it would have come up to my shins! So I moved to the right and took the very muddy, slippery path across the bridge. Then we started to climb - when we got to the steepest part almost everyone was walking. I really wanted to run the whole race so I shortened my stride and kept going.
There was the option of a 5k and when they peeled off to finish I noticed my watch was already a little way past that distance. I didn't really think too much of it - I was running at my target pace and I knew we had the downhill coming so I could recover before attempting the hill again. I started to realise something was very amiss when my watch beeped for 5 miles just as we went past the 7km marker. I wasn't going nearly as fast as my watch was telling me and by the time we reached the steep bit for the second time I gave up and walked. I did manage to get going again but as my watch beeped for 6 miles at the 9km marker I was feeling pretty despondent. By this point I was totally knackered and knew the finish was up another steep hill so I wouldn't even have a sprint to look forward to.
As I turned into the finish I could hear those from my club that had already finished cheering for me but all I wanted to do was get to the end and I didn't even acknowledge them. I crossed the line in 58:14 chip time and did go and join everyone to cheer in our other runners and thank them for supporting me. I doubt it's a race I'll do again as it's been taken off our race calendar as not many people are keen to do it so I think that time may well stand as my one and only attempt. If anyone does get the chance to do it it is very well organised and definitely a challenge.
The main thing I'll take away from this run is my overreliance on technology. I don't look at my watch much when racing but I do check it, particularly in the first few km, to make sure I'm not going too fast. In this case the GPS error meant I was going way too slowly on the easier parts of the course to achieve my goal time. I'd hoped to break 55mins for 10k this year but as that was my last race of 2019 that will have to wait.
PS does anyone know how to delete records from Strava? I've managed to delete them from my watch and Garmin Connect but can't for the life of me work out how to do it in Strava 😂
Yorkshire Marathon Race Report 
NYD marathon race report ! 
Great Bristol 10k/HU10k Race Report ❤️
