I've enjoyed reading the other reports about the Bristol HM so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. Warning: it's quite a long post and there's very little running until right at the end.
I didn't run in the Bristol HM, I was marshalling instead. We were stationed on the Portway which meant that we saw those running the HM but not the 10k. Although I did see the guy who entered the 10k but ran the HM by mistake, was first to finish the HM but was then disqualified for running the wrong course. The Portway section is an out and back loop. I was stationed just past the 3 mile marker and shortly before the 5 mile point. He was going some when he passed me on the way out and already had about a minute's lead on the eventual winner.
Since there's an incline heading up to the turning point, I decided to focus my attention on those heading uphill. I'm not a natural cheerleader so I just clapped as groups of runners came past. I suspect that I wasn't doing a great job because some of the runners were shouting encouragement to me. Still, it seemed as though that in itself helped to establish some sort of rapport. It seemed to go better once I settled into the role and learnt the trick of reading people's names off their race number then shouting “Well done Fred" or whatever (using the runner's name in place of “Fred", but you probably worked that one out without me explaining it).
Jumping back a bit, I was a bit late leaving the house. I needed the loo but figured out I could use one when I arrived. Big mistake! Our meeting point was the Portway Rugby Development Centre which I'd assumed would be a hive of activity for the event. As it turned out, six of us met up in the car park and all the buildings were locked up. There's a saying about assumptions leading to poor outcomes and it seems very appropriate here. Anyhow, that's enough of that.
It was good when some of the runners I knew shouted out “hello” as they went past. I tried to look out for IP and CC but it's tricky with so many runners going past, especially since I'd never met IP. As it turned out, CC spotted me first. I think I might have been chatting to one of the local residents who'd wandered up at the time when IP went past.
I'd originally said that I wouldn't be able to join the meetup because I'd be marshalling until late in the afternoon. However, the day before, I heard that we'd be finishing around 12 so I got back in touch to arrange to join in. After the tail cyclists had gone past, I made my way back with the other marshals from our section and we had a pleasant drink in the sunshine. The meetup was arranged for 1:30 and I wasn't sure what the journey would be like with lots of roads closed for the event so I set off at 12:30. The sat nav took me along lots of backstreets and I arrived in good time. As I turned up at the restaurant, the heavens opened and I was glad to get inside. Had a little trouble identifying the booking because, being a late addition, I didn't know how many it was booked for or who's name it was booked in. In the midst of this, IP arrived and was able to identify the booking. It's interesting being joined in the middle of a discussion by someone you've never met but kind of know anyway.
CC arrived a few minutes later but didn't recognise me at first (probably because I was wearing a face mask). The meetup went really well. I sometimes don't have much to say (although the length of this post contradicts that statement) but I thought the conversation was well balanced and interesting.
After we went our separate ways, I headed home and spent a while reading various posts about the day's events. I finally headed out to make my contribution to the world 10k record attempt around 5:30. I aimed to do the first 5k at a fixed, leisurely pace and the second at a slightly quicker fixed pace. That seems to have gone OK (except that the 2nd k was a bit quick) but I needed a lot of staring at my watch to achieve it. I suspect that using a watch to maintain a target pace like that would be a good distraction from the effort on a faster run. However, I think I really need to work on my perception of pace. The route had a lot of slight changes of gradient and I had to adjust my effort for each change in order to stay on target for the required pace.
Anyhow, I completed the 10k without any problems and it seems that I should receive some bling in the post.
All in all, it was a really good day.
Pace difference between HM and M ?
My longest run to date
Help with "Race Pace" 
1st 10k in 4 months, yay...let the HM training commence!
