Leeds Abbey Dash 10km

This was my main aim pre xmas seeing as I am so hopeless at XC so I was a bit gutted after this race and feel a bit deflated now.  To come so close to a pb yet not get one and get out sprinted at the finish kind of sums up 2010 for me.  It's solid but as a runner we always want to run pbs, I know I can't run a pb in every race but I thought everything was in place to try and better last years time of 29:14. It seems a while since I have wrote a race report on here that I have been happy with!

The conditions on the day seemed perfect, however there was a slight wind in your face heading out to the turn around point but being an out and back course you get the benefit of this on the way back. We went through 1k in about 3mins, this didn't bother me too much as we went through in 2k in 6mins last year.  I missed the 2nd k marker but think it was sub 6mins at 2k and then about 8:40 at 3k.  At this point I think myself and Jonny Taylor had got away from the rest of the pack but we were soon joined by Neilson Hall and we pushed on to 5k.  We got to 5k in about 14:45 which was quite slow, I was hoping for around the 14:30 marker but knew we could push on the back 5k being slightly downhill and the wind behind us.  I can't remember the rest of the splits but think myself and Neilson got clear at about 7k and then it was just a hard battle to the end.  I knew Neilson always finishes really strong in races so knew if possible I had to try and get a gap going into the last k.  I kept trying to push the pace on but just couldn't get away from him.  With about 800m he pulled up along side me and we pushed on for the finish, there is a slight hill with about 600m to the finish and I thought I would wait to go at the top of the hill as I thought Neilson was tiring slightly (how wrong I was!) but as soon as we entered the home straight he just took off and had far too much left for me and I just couldn't respond.  It's no disgrace losing to Neilson though he's a great runner and a lot stronger than me, it's just never nice to lose a race especially when I had led for so long. 

Courtesy of Rothwell Harriers

Race Results:

1    Neilson    Hall    00:29:17
2    Jonny    Mellor    00:29:21
3    Jonathan    Taylor    00:29:37
4    Richard    Weir    00:29:51
5    Kevin    Skinner    00:29:54
6    Alex    Pilcher    00:29:55
7    Ian    Hudspith    00:29:56
8    Matt    Barnes    00:29:59
9    Paul    Martelletti    00:30:05
10    Martin    Whitehouse    00:30:06 

Amazingly 8 people under 30mins which I think shows what a good race Leeds is. Sophie ran another pb in the ladies race with 37:38 which is a great run as she has missed a bit of training of late with illness.

Next 10km for me is Ribble Valley unless I decide to do the Sale 5 instead.