Stockport 10

There aren’t many 10 mile races around these days, so it’s always nice when the opportunity comes up to do one.  Especially so when it’s 4 miles from your house and your last 10 mile race was a 500 mile round trip to Portsmouth!

Unlike the Great South Run which is a very flat and fast course, this one is a testing course with two major climbs, both approximately 1km long.  The first comes at 5 miles, with the second coming at 8.5.  There’s always debate about which of the two is tougher but certainly neither are easy!

There were three significant characters on the start line: my clubmate Matt Barnes, who had convincingly beaten me in the previous weekend’s cross country.  Antony Ford, who has run inside 49mins before.  And another clubmate of mine, the enigmatic Mohamed Abu-Rezeq from Jordan, who has looked fantastic training with me since his move to the UK in September, but had a poor first race in an early season Manchester League placing 7^th after deciding to take off his spikes after one lap!

I wasn’t sure what form Ford was in, but knew he hadn’t raced since the Berlin Marathon.  Matt and Mohammed had been training well, and I was expecting a fairly fast pace to start with.  The race got underway and I was immediately detached from the front three before we even left the track, the pace felt quite quick.  Philip Hoole followed me through the first mile in 5:04, and it was reassuring to have his company as we were closely matched in the recent Leeds Abbey Dash where I was happy with my result. 

We went through 2 miles in a very disappointing 5:21 split and I have to admit to feeling ropey after my second works Christmas party on the Friday night.  At this point I was thinking to myself I’ve made a mistake running here!  Two other runners joined us for the next 6 miles and I felt pretty rough, I kept slipping off the pace and getting back on it.  Eventually we got to that final climb and I put my head down and pulled away from the three guys.  As soon as I hit the climb, I remembered back to doing 5x1km hill reps on that same hill on two separate evenings in September and that made a huge difference.  My final time of 53mins was poor, but I was pleased I saw the race out when feeling rough and finished in the position which probably matched where I am at right now over that distance.

Onto a more serious race next at Ribble Valley where I hope to give more of an indication of where I am really at!!