Monday 22 November 2010

PB or not PB?


I had a fantastic race on Sunday courtesy of the Abbey Dash. A notorious PB course pancake flat and an 'out and back' course, I had made a decision to chase my current 10k PB, something I haven't done for months. After queueing for what seemed like an age to leave our belongings at the baggage tent, Sophie and I then joined what seemed like a never ending queue for the toilet. So baggage free we managed about a four minute warm up before fighting through the crowds to get somewhere near to our predicted finishing time start area. Sophie boldly fought through the throng of runners until we were as near as damn it to where we needed to be. Phew! It wasn't exactly the perfect start to a race but within minutes we began to move forward and in what seemed like no time at all we were over the start line.

My hands were cold and at one point I felt searing pain as they started to warm up, nonetheless I felt confident and powered on and what seemed like only moments later Kirkstall Abbey came into view and at the same time I heard my name shouted from the other side of the road, it was Jill, a runner I first met through fetcheveryone and have seen her at countless races since we first met at a 'fetch mile' a couple of years ago. The boost you get from spotting someone you know is immeasurable and since I knew I would be coming back past the same point on the way back in it was double bubble!

I was well on my way back in when I looked at my watch, 37 minutes, I wasn't too sure how far I had left to go but felt as though I was doing really well. I was still passing people - which doesn't often happen but the sheer volume of people taking part in this race means you are always surrounded by other runners (unless you're winning of course!). Still pain free I began to realise that my ankle was numb - was it going to turn into pain? It never did and I crossed the finish line feeling in great shape. I didn't however, beat my PB - it turned out I had looked at the wrong race in my portfolio and my PB was actually much better than I had thought, I was trying to beat 56:13 when in actual fact it was 54:03 so finishing in 56:12 I was a fair bit out but not disappointed, how could I be that was the best run I'd had in months. So the Abbey Dash is firmly top of the list for next year - and that PB is etched in my mind!

Tonight's club session was a new route for our structured session. Harrogate Road Hill reps saw all our members putting in maximum effort, everyone seemed to enjoy the session so no doubt this will now become a regular feature for our Monday nights as we constantly strive to make participation varied and interesting for our runners.

Another visit to Peter tomorrow should set me up for the rest of the week!

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