Tamworth 10k is a 2 lap route around the Castle grounds,along the canal to Fazeley and back round past Ventura park shopping centre. Its very flat and a brilliant course for a Pb.
Right anyway,enough of the boring bit,back to Sunday.
I woke up to glorious sunshine early Sunday after an evening of homemade curry and red wine. I'm sure I read that the red stuff was good for running (although that could have been one of my dreams). It does seem to work though and some of my best races have been fuelled by Chinese takeaway and Vino although never on the morning as that could be quite bad.
So I had my breccy of Pancakes with choccy spread and I was good to go. I got there early as Hubby had to drop me off and go. I felt quite strange without my support crew so I was just left wandering around like Billy no mates. It wasn't long though before I saw a few friendly faces.
First there was my friend Juan who just the week before had taken part in the Chester Marathon. His lovely wife took this fab pic of us both just before we set off.
I managed to catch up with my lovely friends Amanda and Lisa too and after a few good lucks,5 loo trips and a warm up,we popped off to the start. I had been hoping to see one of my running group members Ian. He joins us at Tamworth AC where we lead a Beginners group and have such a brilliant group of amazing people.
We wait a couple of mins for the gun to go off,Juan gives me some last min tips to just enjoy it and take it easy as I have my Marathon next week and BANG we are off.
I start of a little quick at first and notice I am doing 9 min miles. I slow down as I don't want to crash and burn. Its such a lovely flat run and I am just getting into it when...............there goes Ian whizzing past. I am so proud as his running has come on brilliantly since joining our group just a couple of months ago.
I plod on quite nicely but I am getting very warm as I have my vest top and base layer underneath. I am starting to wish I has just gone with the vest. I feel too warm now and I am slowing down. The water station is coming up at 3 miles and I decide to take a little walk while I have a drink. I cant run with those plastic cups and drink at the same time as most of it goes up my nose. Suddenly I hear my name and as I squint to see where it's coming from I see Sue from My Fitness Family who has come down to support everyone. This spurs me on and I start running again although I am still boiling so at 3.5 miles I take the decision to De robe.
Now you would think that taking your top off mid run would be easy,well you would be wrong. After wrestling with my vest top,scratching my nose on the safety pin and nearly ripping my number off I am still faced with trying to get the base layer off without giving everyone an eyeful.Timing was key but sadly the base layer was proving difficult and I looked like I was doing a Houdini. I was in serious danger of being in trouble for indecent exposure so after getting my arm stuck in the wrong hole of my vest I finally got myself decent. I wonder what the poor woman behind me must have thought. She did shift past me pretty quick after that. (green smiley face).
After all that I got back into my stride and was well into the second lap when I saw my Running buddy Sharon on her training run.( I don't think she had expected to get caught up in hundreds of runners going the opposite way)
Well into the second lap now and back onto the canal which I normally love but its full of puddles and I really don't want my shoosies to get wet and stink of wet doggy again so I have to do a lot of leaping over them. Feeling very good at 5 miles and coming up to the end I decide to speed up a bit. I was hoping to get under the hour but I can see the clock has just gone past it. I speed up anyway and charge for the end. I hear my name again and there is Ed from MFF cheering me . My friend Amanda is already at the end having got a fantastic Pb of 55 mins and is there to congratulate me too. Its support like this that makes races so worthwhile.
I am so pleased as I make it in 1h 46 seconds. I am so proud of my friends too who have all got amazing Pb's and all well under the hour.
A Banana and a quick massage later and off I pop to walk the 3 miles home. I look a bit of a Div in my long socks and shorts and I get some funny looks but I don't care because I have a lovely shiny Medal and a Wagon wheel in my good bag.
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