Monday, February 19, 2007
The Tamworth Heart 10K! Race Report
Well, yesterday was the first event of 2007- the Tamworth Heart 10K! Actually, it was the first 10k I’d done for ages, apart from in training… I did this one last year, in about 1 hour 7 mins, but this year they changed the route slightly.
Tamworth is a little drive away from where I live, so as usual I completely overestimated how long it would take me to get there and arrived 1 ½ hours before the race.
There were already some runners milling around, and a stage for the radio station who were presenting live. I got a hot chocolate, ate a banana (carbs) and mooched around, looking at Tamworth castle rising up out of the mist. The field gradually filled up, and I went the loo loads of times (usual for me!) and left my bag in the baggage tent.
It’s a huge event, well over 2000 people were running. The oldest runner was number 77, and he was 77 years old! The radio station gave us a mass warm up (think loads of bods crashing into each other as we couldn’t hear them properly) then we lined up at the start and were on our way!
It took a while to cross the start line, but once we did I started running and was surprised at how good I felt. I started to overtake people, and kept trying to tell myself not to go too fast too soon. The first 1k marker came fairly quickly, and we turned off the main road and through a housing estate.
After this, the course was fairly undulating, and I managed to overtake more people who slowed to a walk going uphill. At around 3k, amazingly, the lead runners started to go past headed for home! Those guys are amazing!!
It was a sunny day and I felt quite hot at this point. At around 4k we were faced with a long, slow climb, I passed quite a lot of people who slowed up, including number 77. I wasn’t sure whether to clap or cheer at him, but wimped out and just smiled!
I grabbed a bottle of water from the water station and held it for the rest of the race, taking sips every now and again. We passed the 5k marker and I still felt good, my pace felt fairly fast but I felt I could cope with it. At around 6k, I found myself running alongside a lady who told me that although she has completed a 10 mile race, this was her first 10k. We had a kind of conversation, but the only way I could talk was to take a deep breath and kind of blurt the sentence out in one go- if she said 'pardon?' I was stuck!!
I passed a group of people and she fell behind. I was looking for the 7k marker, and it seemed such a long time in coming I started to doubt my ability to continue at the fairly fast pace I felt I was setting. Finally, to my utter relief, I saw the 8k marker- must have completely missed the 7k!
It was downhill now, which provided a welcome relief; trying to ignore the slight fluttery feelings which I was convinced was the onset of a heart attack, I ploughed on and passed the 9k mark- and kept telling myself only about half a mile to go!!
We ran through Tamworth town centre, there was a smattering of people cheering us on- I tried to pretend I was just competing a marathon and it felt quite good! I overtook a young couple and the girl seemed to be really struggling- every breath she took, she gave a kind of strangled little cough. I really felt I should try for a sprint finish, but didn’t fancy the thoughts of crossing the finishing line and spewing my guts!
Down the hill, round the corner… and there’s the finish line! As I crossed over, I noticed the time… 1 hour, 1 minute and 41 seconds. Nearly a PB… We are given a medal, and goodie bags containing, amongst other goodies, a mars bar and packet of crisps (lunch!!)
And… I checked the website and the results are on there already! My clock time was 1 hour 1 minute and 41 seconds… but, we each were given a timing chip to wear which was activated on crossing the start… and my chip time was… tadaaa...59 minutes and 54 seconds!!! That is a PB AND a sub- 1 hour!!! Woohooo- one of my New Year’s Resolutions gone already!! (well, two actually… as another one was to run it faster than last year…)
I really think that the new treadmill work is paying off!! There is a photo site, but with nearly 400 photos on there, I am going to have a real good trawl through... hell, I may even buy one, as long as it's not too ghastly!
Right, what's next? The Belvoir Challenge... bring it on!!!
Tamworth is a little drive away from where I live, so as usual I completely overestimated how long it would take me to get there and arrived 1 ½ hours before the race.
There were already some runners milling around, and a stage for the radio station who were presenting live. I got a hot chocolate, ate a banana (carbs) and mooched around, looking at Tamworth castle rising up out of the mist. The field gradually filled up, and I went the loo loads of times (usual for me!) and left my bag in the baggage tent.
It’s a huge event, well over 2000 people were running. The oldest runner was number 77, and he was 77 years old! The radio station gave us a mass warm up (think loads of bods crashing into each other as we couldn’t hear them properly) then we lined up at the start and were on our way!
It took a while to cross the start line, but once we did I started running and was surprised at how good I felt. I started to overtake people, and kept trying to tell myself not to go too fast too soon. The first 1k marker came fairly quickly, and we turned off the main road and through a housing estate.
After this, the course was fairly undulating, and I managed to overtake more people who slowed to a walk going uphill. At around 3k, amazingly, the lead runners started to go past headed for home! Those guys are amazing!!
It was a sunny day and I felt quite hot at this point. At around 4k we were faced with a long, slow climb, I passed quite a lot of people who slowed up, including number 77. I wasn’t sure whether to clap or cheer at him, but wimped out and just smiled!
I grabbed a bottle of water from the water station and held it for the rest of the race, taking sips every now and again. We passed the 5k marker and I still felt good, my pace felt fairly fast but I felt I could cope with it. At around 6k, I found myself running alongside a lady who told me that although she has completed a 10 mile race, this was her first 10k. We had a kind of conversation, but the only way I could talk was to take a deep breath and kind of blurt the sentence out in one go- if she said 'pardon?' I was stuck!!
I passed a group of people and she fell behind. I was looking for the 7k marker, and it seemed such a long time in coming I started to doubt my ability to continue at the fairly fast pace I felt I was setting. Finally, to my utter relief, I saw the 8k marker- must have completely missed the 7k!
It was downhill now, which provided a welcome relief; trying to ignore the slight fluttery feelings which I was convinced was the onset of a heart attack, I ploughed on and passed the 9k mark- and kept telling myself only about half a mile to go!!
We ran through Tamworth town centre, there was a smattering of people cheering us on- I tried to pretend I was just competing a marathon and it felt quite good! I overtook a young couple and the girl seemed to be really struggling- every breath she took, she gave a kind of strangled little cough. I really felt I should try for a sprint finish, but didn’t fancy the thoughts of crossing the finishing line and spewing my guts!
Down the hill, round the corner… and there’s the finish line! As I crossed over, I noticed the time… 1 hour, 1 minute and 41 seconds. Nearly a PB… We are given a medal, and goodie bags containing, amongst other goodies, a mars bar and packet of crisps (lunch!!)
And… I checked the website and the results are on there already! My clock time was 1 hour 1 minute and 41 seconds… but, we each were given a timing chip to wear which was activated on crossing the start… and my chip time was… tadaaa...59 minutes and 54 seconds!!! That is a PB AND a sub- 1 hour!!! Woohooo- one of my New Year’s Resolutions gone already!! (well, two actually… as another one was to run it faster than last year…)
I really think that the new treadmill work is paying off!! There is a photo site, but with nearly 400 photos on there, I am going to have a real good trawl through... hell, I may even buy one, as long as it's not too ghastly!
Right, what's next? The Belvoir Challenge... bring it on!!!
