marco on running: Hugh Wilson 10k East Kilbride

Distance : 6.26 mi
Time : 35:44 (5:43 / mi.)
Weather : 7.8 C Dry during the race, no wind
Equipment Asics - gel - DS Racer
Total for week week 48: 39.56 mi.

Finally. I have a PB this year. It has only taken me until the last month of the year to get it but hey better late than never. After last weeks great XC run I was in good spirits for this race. Had an easy night before and taking some pre race advice from Alistair M and Robert Gilroy I drank a bottle of wine. On Sunday morning Debbie helped me out by doing her long run in the morning which allowed me to have a nice relaxed morning in the house. She even helped me with my pacing and optimistically guessed I would run 35:45. In the end she was bang on even although at the time I thought she was away with the fairies.

I decided that today I would like last week take it easy at the beginning and this strategy is really working for me. Instead of trying to get to the front of the pack at the beginning I start more conservatively and then attempt to pick people off later on in the race. When this race started I sat behind Ewan and Stephen from Garscube and after the initial spurt of the start was over I felt good enough to start to pass people and managed to put a fair distance between me and the 4th Garscube runner Stephen although later on in the race he caught back up with me. After 5km I managed to catch up with a group that also had Chris Upson in it. He is running the WHW race next year although I didn't recognise him during the race. He managed to push me along with one moment him leading and then the next moment me leading. In the end I managed to come in seconds before him. I felt really good because this was the first time that I felt that I really pushed a 10km and had a neck in neck race with someone and all this on a course that people said wasn't a PB one. Here is to the next flat, straight 10km. I am so wanting to break 35mins.