Harlow Running Club

Midweek League: Harlow (Race 3 of 4) – 16th June

Race Length: 10 Km

PB: 40.44 at Harlow MWL (June 2009)

Course Best 40.44

Target Time: 41.00

Outcome: 40th in 40:50

Nemesis Score: 0 (2 runners)

Splits:

Given that I have been running about 30 seconds off my 10K pace compared to last year, my target for this race was to try and improve on this deficit. My course best was 40.44 in 2009, so anything close to this would be fantastic, going sub 41 great and 41.10, an improvement.

I set off reasonably fast (sub 40 pace) as the first Km can be pretty congested and was well up the field. On the 2nd/3rd Km passed the water tower, I reined it in a little to the 4.04 required for my course best. The first lady from Barnet (who won the ‘Stortford 10K last week) and some faster club mates went past and I tried to latch on, but it was clear If I carried on, I would suffer later, especially as the toughest part of the course was coming.

The 4-6K section sees some undulations and a track section where it is hard to get your footing on the mixture of gravel and ruts. The sun is also in your eyes (even with sunglasses) going repeatedly from bright light to shade. I slowed to 4:15’s, but once at the top you are back on to the road home. Here I regained my rhythm and started to think about the finish.

In front were a group of ‘Stortford runners and one from Barnet. Behind was pretty clear apart from a clubmate, AT who was trailing me. I began to relax and recovered enough to start to push a bit on the return leg past the water tower to 8K. At 8K I started to make a concerted push. I was gaining on the group in front and caught the Barnet runner. There was a bit of tooing and frowing, but I knew he was out of it.  Given the closeness of the race series between us and Bishops Stortford, if AT and I could pass these runners, it could have a major effect on our score.

Passing the 9Km marker, AT was on my shoulder and I went for the Stortford runners. Unfortunately they had also accelerated and my chances of catching were limited - apart from one. There was a slight chance to get him as I went inside the final 500m, but he kicked. The final 300m saw us break on to the field and sight the finish. I started gaining and thought I may do it, but he had enough to hold the gap. Safe behind (scoring wise) I let off the sprint a bit which I think gave AT the chance to go past me in the closing metres.

I finished in 40th place with a time of 40:50, only 6 seconds outside last year. This is 50 seconds away from where I want to be, but I feel that I am back on track, and if I can get the quality speed/hill sessions in, I should be in a position to chip away at it.