Its was that time again to get up and out
on a cold windy and wet December morning for the Stockport 10 mile race! I
particularly enjoy this one as its run by my club and there are so many friendly
faces all the way. At least the temperature had increased a little from the
Baltic mid-week temperatures so the course had thawed out nicely. I was picked
up by running buddy Jason, leaving my devoted supporter / husband Matt at home
doing DIY (I insisted he didn’t need to come an stand freezing his arse
off...as long as he got the living room sorted in prep for Xmas decs!!).
For the first year it was chip timed and we
had names instead of numbers on our…well numbers! I was met by Tom my, coach
(officially as of 2 weeks ago on ‘power of 10’) who decided to look after me
and my bag and was very keen that I did a few warm up laps and made sure I was
optimally prepared (I usually try and conserve ALL my energy for the race
rather than joining in with the enthusiastic pre-race warm-up malarkey).
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| The course Map plus Stats |
A nice edition was the Olympic Torch bearer
who got the race started with a lap of the track (in all his fire-proof gear
despite the torch not actually being lit!!!), he then proceeded to shoot out
some kind of rocket which totally surpassed me but ended in a loud bang and
that was us off!! 2 laps of the track then out into the park, then the heavens
opened right on queue-oh well it’d keep me cool.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I was aiming
for, initially just better than last year (73:44), then I thought maybe I can
do sub-70 based on the half marathon at Tatton…so made sure my watch was
telling me I was going at a sub 7mm pace as I knew I’d go above that at the up
coming killer hills.
At 3 miles my colleague was standing with a
supporters sign and a bag of jelly sweets, which I duly grabbed – thanks Ramon!
By this time 2 ladies had overtaken me and I was sure there were at least
another 3 ahead already but was sure I was in the top 10. Then the hills.
Starting at 4 miles and pretty much continuing until 6.7, I always get to this
point in the race and think WHY do I keep coming back for more! Then I
remembered that little niggle in the back of my head ‘pbpbpbpbpbpbpb’…oh yeah,
ok bite down and just ‘keep driving forward’ said a lady in her 50’s who flew
past me!!!??? Eeeek…I wanna be you when I grow up!
Anyway this followed with a welcome bit of
downhill until the last looong hill at 9 miles. Having not checked my watch
(deliberately) for the last 30 minutes or so I took a peak…OMG I was gonna do
sub 70...come on!!! So that finished it off, I pushed and pushed and overtook 3
ladies and 3 guys, entered the stadium to a screaming Tom telling me I was on
for sub 67 and PEGGED it like I’ve never done before OUCH!
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| Check out those hills! |
I missed sub 67, coming in at 67:07 but I
ain’t gonna complain about that seeing as I was hoping to do around 70 ish,
plus I was 5th Lady, 1st Ladies team and got a nice bunch
of prizes…’you’ll do sub 1:28 on your next HM’ (Quote Tom McNally, Coach!), no
pressure then!
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