It’s been an absolutely brilliant weekend and I’m writing this still buzzing after the run. Considering the build for this has been, to put it politely, challenging, it’s a minor miracle and I’m super pleased with myself.
Race day preparations started yesterday with collecting my number and eating out at Zizzis (chosen specifically for the fact they do a pasta dish identical to my usual pre race dinner). We scoped out parking and a Starbucks for breakfast and morning coffee. Important to get the priorities right! Good nights sleep guarantee at Premier Inn guaranteed and I probably slept the best before any event I’ve done. In the morning, the sun was shining and the weather was cold. Perfect for a run.
After a seamless trip into a Worcester and fruit toast/coffee, time to walk down to the start. After the usual milling around, MrU disappeared off for official race photography/family WhatsApp updating/skittles supplying duties. I ran through the plan in my head-4 minutes run, 1 minute walk, get to 5km and see how things are going. I haven’t run further than 5km since covid 8 weeks ago and I was nervous about running out of energy. Plus the complication of a minor hip niggle after picking up a mug awkwardly last week (!!!). The main goal was just to get to the end without anything hurting too much and with a smile. I spotted the 75 minute pacemaker and as a secondary aim, I wanted to stay in front of him.
Eventually, it was time to start and that’s when the magic happened. This was such a lovely run. A great course with the first 5km around the city and the second along the river. That means there’s really natural different stages of the run to keep it interesting. The way the route goes around the city means it’s easy for a keen supporter (MrU is expert race crew) to zip around and wave at lots of different points. It felt like every ten minutes I was waving! At about 4km, we did an elite level transfer of a handful of skittles on the run.
i was feeling great and it took quite a lot to discipline to stick to “you are jeffing this and not going all out”. I let my run pace drift up a little more than planned as a compromise. That one minute walk was wonderful for reading message from my family and taking pictures. It was such a chilled way to run.
The best part of the race was along the river. Swans. The cathedral. Boats. Dinosaurs.
Yes…I hi-fived two dinosaurs! Crowds are just brilliant for keeping the spirits up. When five miles came up I was really emotional because I wasn’t expecting to get that far still feeling so good. By this point, my pace was picking up and at 9km, I decided to just go with it. All those fast finish runs I’ve done really came into their own and I was overtaking people all the way to the finish line. What a brilliant feeling!! MrU almost missed me because I was over ten minutes faster than I’d expected. It turns out that running with Mr Jeff is actually quite speedy and I left that 75 minute pacer for dust! I wasn’t far off catching up with the 60 minute guy. Nowhere near a PB but I’m massively proud of how today went. Nailed both goals. We celebrated with coffee (of course!) and brownies back in Starbucks.
Thank you to everyone who has waved pom poms and said encouraging things along the way. You are all legends and the support here is amazing. I’ll be wearing my shiny new medal and t-shirt with pride!
ASICS 10k London
Southampton Common 10k
Chester 10K training runs, are training runs generally a thing? 
Weybridge 10k with my sister