Shell Sutton 10k

This was my third race in seven days and would complete my first 100 mile week since March.  My Plantar Fasciitis had now settled down to a point where I could start to train normally again, I felt like an athlete reborn!

I was keen to use low key races as part of my training.  I had treated last Sunday’s Cardiff 10k as a serious race, then midweek I had ran a 5k trail race as part of a session.  Rather than do a tempo run on my own this weekend, I picked out this 10k.  I had won here two years ago and pocketed myself a nice little cash prize. 

It’s always a gamble turning up tired to races like this as you never know who might turn up.  And as I looked around on the start line, there were a few handy lads about.  29:54 10k man Matt Shaw is making a comeback, then there was 31min man Damian Nicholls and the Kenyan runner Tarus Elly who has a best of 30:58.

After months of feeling pretty low about my running, I was brimming with confidence and positivity again after last Sundays positive result at the Cardiff 10k (30:51) and the manner of my win on Wednesday.  Although I didn’t feel great, I was keen to try and duplicate Wednesdays win and control the race from the front. 

I led the first km, with only Tarus Elly for company and as we reached 1 mile, my Garmin signalled that we had ran 5:05.  Tarus took over for the second mile, which was slightly quicker at 5:03.  This was a little quicker than I had anticipated I would be running but I felt I could win this race.

The third mile saw Tarus start to pull away on a slight undulation, he had 50 metres on me as we went through 4km.  I thought I could still win the race at that point but over the next km, I started to get a stabbing pain in the arch of my foot.  I didn’t know what it was – it felt like I had something inside my shoe.  I managed to hold on to second place but in the end was well beaten.   Tarus won in 31:40 and I was exactly one minute behind.  I took my shoe off at the finish, and there was a thorn going right through the sole of my shoe – no wonder I had felt a stabbing pain! 

So no win this time, but a good tempo run as planned and still pocketed a few quid.