Stirling 10K

My plan for this race was to run 3:30 per kilometre and try to sneak inside 35 minutes, or at least not fall outside 36. I also knew that a top 20 finish would earn me more points in the Grand Prix series, although this was likely to depend on the quality of the field, and there was a large turnout. I went through the 1K marker in 3:15 but was well down the field, which had quickly started to fragment on account of the fast pace. On a couple of occasions I passed a few runners who had started to struggle and found that they had fallen off the back of a pack, which I would managed to latch onto. I stuck to my goal pace fairly well for the next couple of kilometres but started to lose a couple of seconds here and there.

By the halfway mark I was still slightly ahead of schedule, and the next part of the route took us down a country lane with a hairpin turn, which gave me a chance to work out what position I was in. I stopped counting at 20 with well over a dozen runners visible further down the path. I was still making up the odd place here and there and went through 7K in exactly 24:30. At this point it looked like sub-35 was unlikely although I expected to beat 36 minutes without too much trouble. By 8K, I had lost a few more seconds but was gaining very gradually on the runner in front. In the final kilometre, a fast finisher went past both of us, but as the finish drew closer I was unable to pick up the pace at all and couldn't close the gap. My finishing time was 35:09 which represents another few seconds knocked off my best time for the year, and an average mile pace of 5:39. This gave me 34th place overall and I was first Garscube finisher. The marathons I ran at the end of August probably contributed to my lack of speed at the end, although at the same time they may have helped me maintain a reasonable pace for longer. I don't think my low mileage during the previous week had any real negative effect.

After the race I went back to the car to get changed and collect some things for Natasha, who in her first 10K was somewhat faster than I expected in 52:50, so by the time I had dealt with some blisters (Mayflys possibly not laced up tightly enough) and gone back to watch people arriving, she had already finished.