It was a hot day - it's been a warm weekend and Monday was by far the warmest so i knew it wasn't going to easy. I'd hoped for a good time, having got a PB at the Herts 10K last year, 2 weeks after the Loch Ness Marathon. But I struggle in the heat and even if my fitness was very good, my pace would suffer quite a bit. I decided to try and push for 62 minutes (a 10 min/mile) as a goal, but would see how it went and if it really did feel warm i would aim for 65 minutes. The last very hot 10K I did was last year's Bupa London 10K in 27 degrees C - a scorcher!
I drove down to Windsor on Monday morning and got there nice and early. It was being held in the Windsor Park, with the castle as a beautiful backdrop. The race started and finished on The Long Walk, a road about a mile long leading downhill to the castle. As we we starting the race running away from the castle, it was a bit of an uphill slog, but a great downhill final mile!
Organisation seemed very slick. It was part of the Rock and Roll Marathon series and the first of this event. So they had lots of little extras such as a band at the start (although none along the route sadly), great women's technical tee-shirt, a small Expo and a very blingy medal! If this is how they do a medium-sized 10k then I would be up for one of the or full marathons in this series!
The course was very nice, on closed roads and all within the park grounds. It was quite undulating with some long climbs but a couple of nice downhills too, which weren't too hard on the knees. It was very warm though, and certainly slowed me down. It was nice when running through the shady trees, and we did have a few clouds provide a bit of shade after about 30 minutes, but in general it was too hot for fast times. The toughest part of the course was an uphill run to the 2nd water stop - where everyone immediately started walking and throwing water over their heads! I had been following the 65 minute pacer but was really worried as she was quite a long way off now and didn't think I was going to be able to catch up - meaning my time was going to be over 65 mins.
The final 2k were pretty good, we got a bit of a breeze and cloud cover, and there more nice downhill stretches. You get a great view of Windsor Castle for a few minutes, before turning right and the woodland blocks your view again. But you know that soon you will need to do a left turn and move back onto the Long Walk where the finish line lies! Eventually we turned on to this and could see the finish line in the distance. I went right into the zone here and got a great pace going, and to my shock managed to catch up the 65 min pacer! This long road stretched out for what seemed like an age - whilst exciting to see the finish line at first, it certainly didn't seem to be getting any closer! That's the curse of finish lines like this - it is very deceptive to the eye! I focused on just looking at the castle further on and keeping the pace up, but getting ready to go for a sprint finish at the exact right moment (as the finish line looked so close, it was tempting to get the sprint on too early and drain the tank!). Finally we passed the charity stands just 200 meters to go, and then it was 100m, ready to sprint, and then the finish! Another race complete!
Took a moment to catch myself and slow down before making my way through the finisher's area and taking a nice drink of water. Received a lovely, sparkly medal, banana, water, energy bar and crisps. My final time was 65 mins - 1:05:12 - so given the heat that was pretty much as expected. Had a lovely time afterwards eating my snacks and watching the other runners come through.
I do miss the times I achieved last autumn when i was consistently running just under the hour therefore know I can do much better than 65 mins but perhaps that week was just not the time or place for it. Race day can be such a gamble! I have to be feeling 100% well, it must be perfect weather (for me, that's is 5-13 degrees C - erring on the cooler if I've been training in the winter, but can be warmer if I've trained in the summer and used to the heat - plus dry and a gentle breeze), timed so as not to be too close for another big race, a fast course which is mainly flat but I quite like a few undulations as long as there are no shocking hills, no tummy troubles, blisters or injuries while running and good organisation. Many races have been just so and I've got some nice PBs but others have been so-so for various reasons. But hey as long as they are enjoyable and worth the effort I enjoy them and wouldn't beat myself up just for not getting the exact time I hoped for!
That was the last "long" run I will do before Prague - from now on it's a couple of short taper runs, a bit of cycling and swimming and plenty of rest before Sunday.
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