The Maidenhead Easter Ten

My first ten mile race and I wasn't half as nervous as I was for the MK 10K. I think it was because we had an improvement in the weather. The bitter east wind that has blown continually for the last couple of weeks had died down. It was still around freezing as we set off in the car, but before we arrived at the venue, the temperature had crept up gradually. And the sun was out! So yes, it could have been milder (my hands didn't warm up for three miles)  but conditions were better than expected.

Alison set a good steady pace, exactly 9 minutes 43 secs for each of the first three miles and then around ten minute mileing for the next five. Mile nine was quite hard as it was mainly uphill and Alison persuaded me to leave her behind for the last mile. She likes to coast in, whereas I found I had some energy for a fast finish. We had planned to run just under 100 minutes for the ten miles and thanks to Alison (again) this is what we achieved. I came in at 1 hour 38 minutes 47 secs and Alison 55 seconds later. Amazing to think that this is ten minutes quicker than my three training runs over the same distance.

What brought me down to earth was the fact that we finished 978th and 990th out of 1,095 runners, so only just in the top 90% compared with being well inside the top 50% at the MK 10K. I guess our standard of fun runners don't go for the longer distance. I was pretty tired at the end, but not too exhausted for a welcome lunch at John Lewis on the way home.