Bupa 10k

On Tuesday Marie asked me if I’d like a number for this race that she had going spare. I said sure why not, but of course give it to a better runner than me first! However it seemed that there were no other takers, so yesterday Heather and I picked the number up. It was only then that it fully dawned on me that this was a championship number, with the attendant privileges! I felt very much that I was not worthy, but it seemed silly for the number to go to waste….

I had a flick through the race instructions yesterday, noted that I’d done pretty much the opposite of all of ‘Mo’s top tips for race day’, and paid particular attention to the special instructions for championship runners!

I set off this morning with Heather, who had paid for her entry like a normal person and was running with the common or garden riffraff. I did not milk this at all of course! We met up with some ‘elite’ runners from Stragglers on the journey, most of whom also felt somewhat out of their league.

On The Mall we said goodbye to Heather and headed for our special championship area just behind the finish. On entering the building the first person I saw was Mo Farah… and the first place I went was the toilet! Disappointingly they were not gold-plated but very nice and clean and un-portaloo-like with Penhaligon toiletries!

I then went up to the changing room, good grief I have never felt so overweight in my life! Nor have I ever seen so many teeny shorts and crop tops in one room. Jo Pavey was doing some stretches on the other side of the room, however Paula was nowhere to be seen. (I think there was an even more special area for VIPs).

I went to the loo again (where there was a huge queue of…. two people) and outside for a warm up. I jogged up and down a bit but felt too intimidated to do any strides. We were then walked to the start, the pace was picked up to a jog and I could hardly keep up!

Arriving at the start was slightly intimidating to say the least. We approached from the opposite side to everyone else, and slotted in right at the front, like literally on the line! In a field of 10,000! There was a tape separating us from the rest of the field, I went right back to this tape and stood to the side. I was worried I might get trampled in the rush. The main contenders were announced and we commemorated Grete Waitz and Sammy Wanjiru, then we were off. I started my watch on the gun because I wanted to see how long it would take me to cross the line. 7 seconds! In a field of this size I would normally expect to take 10 -15 minutes!

I stuck to the kerb and managed not to get trampled, and was in a lovely clear space within a km and for the whole of the rest of the way. Foolishly I also set off as if I was in shape to race 10k, rather than still suffering from last week’s race! It was much hotter than I had anticipated and I was glad I’d made a last minute decision to put on sun cream and sun glasses. By 3km I was grateful for the water station and by halfway I was tired! I tried to stick to an 8 min mile pace but it was hard work. My breathing was not great and nor were my legs. However the course was great, I enjoyed taking in the sights of London and I loved all the drummers, I definitely went a little bit faster past them.

There was some great support out on the course and the good thing about 10k is it’s over relatively soon! I finished in the distinctly non-elite time of 52.10, I’ll call that a nice tempo pace I think. I crossed the line and had my chip removed, and was wandering through the finish when a lady said ‘championship runner? This way please’ and directed me straight back to the special area. I then embarrassed myself by asking about my goody bag, elite athletes aren’t supposed to care about such trivia! However I am happy to report I did get a goody bag, and it was very nice to have somewhere indoors to change after the race as well as before. And no stress re toilet queues, baggage etc. I enjoyed the elite experience very much but don’t think I’ll ever live up to it!

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