Richard Burton 10k

Ah the 'Classic' Richard Burton 10k, known for being an unforgiving course with some very nasty climbs at 2 and 5miles, throw in some other sharp rises and enough twists to drive you round the bend, you certainly find out how fit you are. The week before on Sunday I did my 17miler on the course with a few miles either side of 2 laps of the course (37:16 and 36:49) and felt ok and made sure I knew where every corner was and how best to get up the dam hills!

So on the morning of the race my Mum came along with my Dad to watch and got my number before a jog with Lewys and couple of others. With 30minutes to go I went off on my own to do my own thing. I got to the line quite relaxed and had a quick chat with Steve Davies who clearly had clue about what lay ahead of him thinking there were only a couple of little hills (turned out to be a very long morning for him), also had a few words with James Thie before we lined up. There was a plan of going off pretty steady before flooring the middle section with all the hills and then hang on for a mile or so.

Gun went and I went straight to the front and cut a few bends through the streets before going through the first mile, I didn't look at the car clock on purpose in case it either frightened me for going to fast or hit my confidence if going slow, I was going off feel. Couple more turns and a shout from James Thie "Watch the post" and we were heading back up to the start point where it started to climb a bit. I just increased the pace slightly and felt the pack drop off a bit.....now I wasn't at the 2mile point yet but I decided quickly to push on to get a gap and by 2miles I had about 10-15seconds. After a brutal climb at 2miles (around 500m) followed by some short sharp up and downs I seemed to have got a good lead around 40 seconds. I tried to relax but kept pushing all the way to 4 miles although I could swear I was hearing footsteps behind me even though people kept saying "you have a good lead" and the claps were stopping as I ran past which meant no one was close behind.....always listen for the claps!

There is then another horrible climb just after 4miles which I felt as if I was walking up it and was getting a bit annoyed thinking of all the time I was losing, the other problem is you can't really make it back up as the drop is so short and sharp your knees hurt from each land and can't get any sort of stride on it. I past George at the bottom of the hill on 5miles and then I tried to pick up pace again for the last mile watching the clock on the car which seemed to be fast or something! Hehe.

Last 400m my stomach was in a mess and the legs were burning a bit but a target set at 30.20 was not far away so really tried to push up the finish straight but ended up at 30.30 which was still a good time on that course. I don't often have to sit down straight away after a race but as soon as I crossed the line I just sat down for a minute and waited for second place to come in, I can feel the confidence coming back slowly and I havnt pushed myself that hard for a while.

I thought the two 1500m boys (Davies and Thie) did a great effort as well to drag themselves around that course when its not their game at all and Thie who is a bit of a unit getting up and down those climbs although those boulders he calls thighs might help him a bit. Davies struggled probably just because he didn't know what was coming but the three of use will be racing a 5k in May and sure that is going to be a lot closer!!

Thanks for all the shouts on the way round there.

Simx