Birchwood 10K race report and quote.

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift." Steve Prefontaine.

Steve Prefontaine did a 10K in 27:43 so I've got to train a bit harder!

12th. Web results http://www.spectrumstriders.org.uk/our-races/birchwood-10k/results/2010-10k

I like to have a look at the quality of people around me. Here's a summary:

Summary of people around me:

10th 33:22 Russell Maddams recent PB: 32:53

11th 33:38 Neil Pendlebury's PB 31:33 in 2009

13th Paul Faulkner PB 34:10

14th Steve Hebblethwaite PB 33:35

So from that I can see that I was in good company.

I also like to look at the actual distance measured on my GPS watch and the pace. The distance was longer at 6.28 miles rather than 6.124. The pace was 5:21 which was a PB pace for me. A 5:20 pace, which I was aiming for would have give me a 33:00 time.

The quality of the field was high. The winner, Ben Fish has done a 2:20 marathon and a 4:01 mile, a very versitile runner.

The actual race itself was a good experience for me. Rebecca and Karla came and watch and it made me run quicker when they cheered me on, especially at about 1/4 mile towards the end. They must have given me another 15seconds. Karla ran alongside me for a couple of metres which made me run faster.

The last two miles of the race were hard because of two slight hills over motorways. Then the beginning of the race was a little hard because of eight roundabouts. But overall I think the race has about 75% PB potential. I'm not sure why I clocked it as too long. I wonder if anyone else clocked it as being long? I'll try to find out.