Women's Running Nottingham 10k

I did the Women's Running Nottingham 10k last Saturday, and it was brilliant!  I really enjoyed it.  Mum and Dad very kindly offered bed, breakfast and some rather splendid evening meals to me and Jules and we made a weekend of it.  I was really nervous for two days beforehand - I had butterflies in my stomach all Friday! - and I vowed never to run a race when I'd not comfortably run the distance in training.  It would have been unbearable if I hadn't known I could run 10k without any problems.  I was nervous about the ankle I'd sprained a couple of weeks ago wasn't going to hold up, and also that it was going to be blazing hot, but I think I was most nervous about the dreaded *bathroom issues* (which I drove everyone mad by mentioning every few minutes).  At my request Mum served a light - but lovely- meal on Friday night with fruit for pudding (no cream for me!).

Fortunately the morning of the race dawned relatively cool and overcast, and after a light breakfast of a sprinkling of muesli, banana and a slice of toast (in spite of Dad's urgings to have more, as "you can't run 10k on that!) we headed to Nottingham.  It was a lot less busy than I thought it would be, and we parked straight away in a huge grassy car park.  There might not have been many cars, but there were a good number of people and a good atmosphere.  After the obligatory queue for the Portaloos I put my race number on and posed for a nervous photo.

Then it was on with the (very exciting!) chip and the warm-up.  The ankle was a bit sore, but I could put my full weight on it, and I reckoned I'd be able to run the whole 10k.

After a bit of a motivational cheer and a very short wait we were off!

My race strategy (which sounds very grand!) was very simple: start slow, start slow, start slow.  I decided to run the first 5k at a very leisurely pace and then speed it up if my ankle was holding up.  So I ignored everyone sprinting off at great speed (including the 60 minute pacer, to my alarm) and trotted along at my own pace, being overtaken by pretty much everyone.  Having done the starting too fast thing in races before (in my 5k days) I knew that a lot of the people overtaking me wouldn't be able to keep that pace up (and would be suffering greatly later). 

At the 5k mark my ankle was holding up nicely and I was ready to push it a bit.

I overtook people steadily for the next 5k and crossed the finish line with a chip time of 1:00:53.

The only thing I didn't do was keep a close enough ear on RunKeeper (which, thanks to the fact I'd had it on pause at the start was saying wierd stuff to me like "you have been running for 49 minutes, 1 second...") during the last few kilometers, otherwise I would have realised how close I was to my target of sub-60 and pushed it a bit harder (although I was mindful of the fact that I didn't want to cross the finish line and throw up...never a good thing!).  Lesson learned for the next race. 

As it was, though, I was thrilled to bits with the race I ran.

The time for the first mile includes a couple of minutes on pause at the start - I didn't start that slowly!  I didn't quite manage negative splits either, but I think that will come with practice.  The most important thing is that I had an absolutely fantastic time.

Thank you to Mum, Dad and Jules, the best support team ever!  Half-marathon next, folks...!