London Winter 10km – 5/2/17

The London Winter Run is one of the Winter Run series run by Cancer Research. With a field of 13000 runners this was the biggest race I’d ever run in and the first time I’d raced in London. I was down in London on the Monday anyway for work so thought I’d go down a day early and tackle my first 10k of 2017.

My last PB was in September at Baxter’s but I had to stop half way round in the woods for a wee. I figured if I could control my bladder I might be good for getting another 30 secs or so off my time. And in any case there aren’t any woods in London, as Paula Radcliffe well knows.

There was a diverse field including club runners, charity runners and walkers. I was in the first wave due to set off at 0930. Following my Baxters experience I limited myself to one cup of coffee in the morning and a two banana breakfast at about 0700. I arrived stupidly early so had time for a warm up round St James’ Park and multiple trips to the portaloos before being herded into the start corridor at 9. There followed half an hour of standing about and trying to stay warm before we set off.

I’d set myself a mile pace aim of 6:55 aiming to finish in 43 mins and a new PB. The conditions were great. It was cool (about 4 degrees with very little wind) and the sun came out just as we were ready to set off.

There was a little bit of jockeying for position at the start particularly as the time bands weren’t really policed but after the first couple of hundred yards there was plenty of space to run. I passed through the first mile in 6:39 noting that I’d banked 16 secs and still felt good at the end of the second (6:44). The third was a little slower at 6:50 but that included a water station. There was plenty to keep you motivated including singers, a band and lots of high fives from foxes, penguins and polar bears.

The 4th mile had me 37 seconds up overall and I felt quite good. Mile five was hard and I began to worry I’d overstretched myself but I still came through in 7 mins dead. So I was 32 seconds under target with 1.2 miles to go. I finished mile 6 in 6:43 and raced for the line on Whitehall doing the last 0.2 miles at nearly 6 min/mile pace. I crossed the line in 42:20 taking 59 secs off my Inverness time.

This is a well organised mass participation event with little to fault. I didn’t even have to queue for the toilet. The medal is massive and weighty. There was plenty of water and chocolate at the end. I finished 307/13144 and was 31/664 in my age category  (MV 40-44).