Error number one was leaving my running shoes at my desk and only realising once fully kitted out, had to walk through the office in running vest, shorts and socks to get my shoes. Just pretended I do that all the time, but caught my boss sniggering in my general direction!
Needed a last minute number two so that plus the shoes made me miss the guys at the meeting point (who had all missed each other by that time) and made my own way to mile end. Jogged up to the canal and took the side canal to the park. Seemed like for ever to get to the Victoria Park Harrier's club house and by the time I got there, there were loads of runners warming up and a clutch of them were pointing at me so I aimed for them and sure enough SEAC base camp had been established by Martin.
Got my number, met up with Running Fource buddy Paul and warmed up. Remembered to eat the gel stuffed into my shorts.
Before the race I had decided to try and go out with Martin and Steve and see if I could hold the pace. At the off there seemed to be so many people and most of them were going fast. I held the plan for the first mile. I could see Martin ahead and Steve went past after about a mile. Then the first ladies flew past and just as they got to Steve, his watch fell off! He stops takes a step back and picks it up. If only I had been a few steps closer I could have booted that watch into the trees and had half a chance of finishing ahead of him!
Could not hold the super fast sub six min miles for any more than mile one, so dropped back a little and did not like being overtaken. I made a fair few work hard to get past me, but the highlight of the night was the last half mile. I had only managed to half convince my Garmin to go back to imperial so it was auto lapping and alerting me after each 1km, while I was trying to convert that to miles and having a tough time. So I was not really that sure how far it was left to the finish. One more went past then another and suddenly I did not need any arithmetic or Excel spreadsheets I could see the finish and when the next guy went the Lockett Rocket in me was unleashed. He pushed past with 300 to go, and I drew level, he tried to get away with 200m to go but again I let him think he had me then motored past him, but then eased off and he drew level with me at which point I let rip for the line and he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
22:17 on the Garmin, compared to last year which was 23:05 so a stunning year on year improvement. Even more significant is my average pace, which is under the magic four min kms. Hold that for another 4.4km and I'm under 40mins. Roll on the Herts 10km.
Steve and Martin were jubilant in the pub having left me for dust after one mile, which is weird given how I get on at the canal. I think now I need to do some long reps and get back into the threshold runs that I've been skipping.
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