Vitality London 10,000

My parkrun entry to the London Vitality 10,000 only cost me £15.00 for running around the streets of the capital. How amazing is that! The weather was kind, mostly sunny with some cloud and only very warm in the direct sun. Plenty of shade from the taller buildings.

We drove to Amersham where we could park for free on a Bank Holiday and took the Metropolitan Line into London. £10.60 for all our travel compared with nearly twice that on the main line. On the station platform were two couples we knew from parkrun, so the journey seemed a lot shorter with all the chat. The train was full of runners by the time we arrived at Finchley Road to change trains for Green Park. Here we had to queue for the exit barriers with the station packed with those running and their supporters.

We found a quiet spot and sat on a table's bench waiting for the time to make my way to the start. The organisation of the five pens down The Mall was excellent, I was in the middle purple pen (apparently they had never used this colour before). We were off at 10.30 am on the dot and were very soon running under Admiralty Arch, one of the many great sights along the way. At halfway we were at the back of St Pauls.

I thought I was running at 9.30 pace, but reaching 5 K in 30 minutes turned out to be nearer 9.40. However, I had decided to take in the sights on the way, and it was very crowded. There were nearly 20,000 runners. I upped my pace in the second half and with 2 K to go, in some lovely shade,  I tried to accelerate. However with a couple of hundred yards I was out in the sun for most of the way to the end. But I did finish in 58 minutes and 51 seconds, which meant that I was running at an average of about 9.16 for the second 5 K, and under that for the last mile. It was the slowest of all 13 of my 10 K races, however my watch gave me a distance of 6.32 miles, probably because of the crowds. Adjusted to 6.2 miles, this was a pace of 9.18 and a time of 57 minutes 51 seconds, a lot closer to my usual time. I came in 17th out of 92 men over 70, and 10,254 out of the nearly 20,000 finishers.

So considering the crowds and the weather (at times I did have to ease off when my heart rate was too high), I was pleased with the result, and an age grade of 64.80% was OK. I found Alison back in Green Park and we made our way back to the Underground. I could not believe how many people (tourists) were pouring out of the station, well it was a sunny Bank Holiday.

We went for a lovely lunch at Bill's on Baker Street. Their Pink Lemonade is to die for. We had a long wait for a train back to Amersham, and an accident when we had nearly reached Wendover meant a long detour via The Lee. But nothing could have spoilt a great day. Thanks to Alison for being my bag lady, it made the day even better. And the t-shirt was splendid, and all in that price of £15!