Post Race!

It’s the day after the race, all the hard work is over! Well done to everyone who took part yesterday, I hope you all had a great day and got the times you were hoping for! I’m very pleased to be able to say that I got a new PB!! My official time was 56mins 30 secs! I averaged 10.7kph for the run, I actually ran the first 6k averaging 10.9kph, the pace I need for a 55m 10k! After 7k it had dropped to 10.8kph, then by time I got to the top of the hill in Pollock Park it was 10.7kph! But by that point I knew it was flat for the rest of the way and that if I just keep running at an even pace I should get a good time and so I managed not to let my average drop further! I did my first mile in 8m 41s, second 8m 49s, third 8m 56s, fourth 9m 13s, fifth 9m 32s and sixth in 9m 11s.

I know I said in my very first blog that I wanted to achieve 55 minutes for my 10k time, but I realised over training that was a bit too ambitious just yet so I am really happy with the time I did get for it, I achieved my fastest 10k yet, I ran the full race without stopping (actually the first time I’ve done that in a race!) and despite projectile vomiting on the finish line, I actually felt really good after it! Errr also I do apologise to anyone who witnessed my throwing up at the end! It probably was not pretty!

The race itself I actually really enjoyed! The warm up at the start was great fun (over 10,000 women dancing to Abba at 9.30 on a Sunday morning, what a sight!) and the support along the route was excellent, no doubt helped by the sun which after a dreadful few days decided to make a welcome appearance! The organisation as usual was excellent and I felt the whole day went really well. The main highlight for me however was around the 5k mark when a girl dressed as a banana ran past me, just before the entrance to Pollock Park! I hadn’t seen her coming up behind me so got quite a surprise! Well done to her and everyone else who managed to raise a lot of money of various charities! It really does make all the training and effort feel worthwhile.

I want to say hello to a woman I got talking to on the start line, Tracey. If you are reading this, I hope you got the time you were looking for and good luck with the Great Scottish Run in September! Thank you also to the person that left a comment on my blog, I have had a lot of fun writing this over the last 18 weeks (and have found it a great motivator to get myself out running to make sure I’ve had plenty to write about!), but its good to know that people other than my friends and family are reading this and hopefully have found it useful as well!

Well all that’s left for me to say now is thank you all for reading my blog, and I’ll be starting my Great Scottish Run blog shortly (17 weeks to go!) if any of you are interested in finding out how my running is going throughout the summer!

Signing off one last time,
Claire