Training

I did the Runners’ World 10k race at Sandown racecourse on Sunday, in freezing, windy conditions. The idea was to get some race practice and assess fitness level in advance of the half–marathon on 6 March 2005. The course was three laps, partly on tarmac, partly on muddy grass, with an uphill section at the back of the lap.

I came 44th, with an official time of 41:48, with which I was extremely disappointed, since I had been hoping to get under 40 minutes, as an indication that a half–marathon in under 90 minutes might be possible. I was on target for a sub–40 finish at the 9k marker, but lost it in the final kilometre. My time was particularly disappointing, because it was only 15 or so seconds quicker than my time for the Nike 10k, which I did at what felt like a relatively comfortable pace last year, before I had started the half–marathon training. For the Sandown race, I was pushing much harder on the day and was coming in off the back of six weeks hard training.

It appears that there is now some controversy about the distance measurement for the last kilometre. Maybe there’s something in it. Unless I dramatically misjudged my pacing, my own split times suggest that the last “kilometre” was nearer a mile. But we’ll never know. All in all, maybe a bit of a set–back, maybe a plausible excuse, but all I can do is move on and do as much as I can in the final two weeks of hard training to get back on target.

Update: Turns out the guy who won it also has a website. At least I can take some solace from the fact that he found it hard also, even though he did beat me by nearly six minutes! (at least that’s less than a minute a mile!)