Following my blog from last week I committed to 3 things for my prep for today’s race, commitment 1 was fab, commitment 2 was a half success… I had quite a lot of pain in my hip and legs.
I wasn’t totally ‘up’ for today but knew i could run it and ultimately nothing could be as bad as Leeds was!
So we arrived, and after a long queue for the toilets and what can only be discribed as my longest wee ever, we went to the starting pens. Some stretching and the walk over meant I was nice and warm and relaxed, I did my normal selfie on the line with my wife and then we were off…. I would see her again at the end of the race.
The advice provided prior to the race was that York was a lovely route and was flat, well they had the first bit right!
The route went through housing areas and weaved in and out but the best bit was at about 4 1/2 km when the route took us towards and then past York Minster with the bells ringing… At this point I must admit I got a bit emotional and got goosebumps.
The next 3km went well and then something happened… My legs gave up… So at 7.5km I started to walk…. At this point i couldn’t really decide whether it hurt less to run or walk! I ran / walked for the last 2.5km which I didn’t beat myself up about as I knew I was going to finish.
As I got the last 400m I saw my wife and she ran a little bit with me to cheer me on and then I saw my Mam who had come to watch. Again the eyes watered and with a 100m to go I did my sprint finish.
Now to this “it’s flat”… Well it would be if it was ironed out. I would say it’s an undulating course. Which I enjoyed as I like hills but the last few into the headwind were hard!
After finishing a quick text to Claire to fill her in and then some stretching 😀
So overall a fab 10km and one I would definitely do again. I paced myself well and kept telling myself to slow down which I’m glad I did as I still managed a 42:11 for the first 5km. Which is not far off my PB for a 5km!
Whilst I did my slowest 10km I don’t mind as I finished but most importantly I finished he Yorkshire Season ticket by completing Hull, Leeds and York 😀
alibowenblog 