Wimbledon 10k

While I was in France the other week I looked everywhere for a race on the weekend I was due back. Originally I was due to fly back Sunday evening but if I could find a race I was prepared to fly home early as I could get a flight for under £100. I eventually found the Wimbledon 10k online so got myself entered and sorted out a flight home early from France.

The race itself was an early start, 9:30am so I stopped over in Teddington the night before then made my way over at 8 on Sunday morning. I felt ok before the race and got a good warm up done, then made my way to the start.

I just wanted to run and assess how I felt and then if I felt good, push on in the latter stages. I knew fellow RunnersLife athlete Ben was running so it wasn't going to be easy at all as he's in great shape. Then on the startline i spotted Paskar from Belgrave who had a good run at Southern Road Relays a week before. On the startline I seen Ben Whitby too, who is a quality runner on all the surfaces. 

As we started I wasn't too fussed what pace it went off at, I was happy to follow it. It seemed to be fairly relaxed, i'd estimate around the 5minute mile mark as it was downhill in a section of the park before it flattened out and we completed the first small lap before heading out on 2 large laps round the streets. 

I knew there was a hill in it but had no idea what it would be like. Thankfully I had 2 laps, so on the first I could assess the course then on the 2nd make any moves if I was in contention to win it. The 3 lads above and I broke away after a couple miles as we started the first large lap. I just followed the pace and didn't really have any idea how quick we were going at this point. I got to the hill and it was a lot steeper than I expected! For anyone who knows Wimbledon, it's right outside the famous tennis club. We came off the top, turned left and then had a downhill to go down. It was that steep you couldn't actually run as fast as you wanted down it, so it was more of a trying to slow yourself down so you don't fall over type of hill.

When we reached the bottom I sensed the pace starting to pick up a little so I followed Paskar as we re-entered the park to finish the first large lap. He seemed to be making a conscious effort to get away but I felt quite comfortable to follow. We then climbed again slightly up out the park to start the 2nd large lap and as we turned out the gates I just kept going at the same pace and to my surprise he seemed to fall off the pace. So I just kept moving and I opened up a gap. 

I'd thought the previous lap, if I was in contention at the bottom of the big hill i'd make a move and try and get away in the final 2k so now it was just a case of trying to extend my gap then maintain what I had without feeling too bad. So I kept moving, got up the steep hill then back down the other side, but trying to hold back down a steep hill didn't do my back too good and I felt it tighten up a little. So I tried to relax the last 2k to make sure I didn't do myself too much damage. 

I got back through the park, up the hill and into the track to finish the race with 300m round the track. The finish was at the 200m mark and as I start running along the back straight I seen the clock just tick 31 minutes and I knew the course record was just outside that. So I put a sprint in but it was too late, I finished on 31:10 which equalled it. Not the end of the world but slightly frustrating.

I was happy with the race on the whole and being able to come down from altitude and race gives me confidence for Liverpool Euro xc trials. So i'm now looking forward to my next training spell.