I wasn’t looking forward to the 10k HUHM this morning. I’ve felt drained and demotivated by the heat and humidity of these past weeks and found it a struggle to run 5k, let alone 10k!
However, this morning I was determined to give it my best shot and, thinking back to my C25K days and Sanjeev’s encouraging shouts of ‘you can do it’, I set off. I started with a familiar route – a quick trot round the park to find my running legs, then a short uphill stretch directly into the wind to find my stamina. I was aiming to complete each km at a pace of under 7min/km and quickly settled into a pace of around 6.30k. I avoided the dog walkers and muddy paths in the woods and took a new route, downhill towards the town which took me to 4k and still feeling strong. The next stretch was 2k, gently uphill and out into the countryside, I was worried that I was going to run out of pavement and have to turn back, or run on a busy road (not an option!). It was raining by this time which was refreshing, but not refreshing enough to keep my pace below 7km (6k was 7.01). I was feeling tired but told myself to keep going and no way was I going to even think about walking a few metres! At 7km (7.08) I was heading back home, on the flat and completely soaked – it was great! I picked up the pace again, by 8km the rain was torrential but I didn’t care, I knew my speed was similar to pre-lockdown levels and I wasn’t going to stop. The final downhill stretch into the village was sheer joy and a final victory lap round the park completed my 10k. Overall my pace was 6.38 min/km and I completed the 10k in 1:06:39. It’s not a PB, but I’m delighted and I’ve got my mojo back. Good luck everyone.
London Winter Run completed!
Colchester Half
HUHM Race Report
