Been a bit quiet on here lately, because I’ve not run in a while. After suffering from shin splints I decided to give the running a break for a fortnight to let my legs heal, using the foam roller (and suggested exercises from kinetic revolution) and low impact exercise such as sitting on the exercise bike in the gym watching Gossip Girl to keep my body ticking over.
I had a 10k in London to look forward to, and didn’t want to miss out. It would be the first race I’d run with Mark since the Color Run three years ago, even though it turned out he was in a different wave to me, and the longest run that Paul had ever done so wanted to give him someone to run with/make sure he didn’t bottle it. I could miss the odd parkrun in favour of saving myself for this.
Sensibly we decided to stay in London the night before the race to make sure we got a decent amount of kip without needing to rush to the starting line. Foolishly this was also because we were in London the day prior to the run walking around a very hot comic convention. We left early to book in to our hotel and rested, and I had a nice chicken and chorizo rice meal from Leon as race fuel.
The pre-race ambling helped relax us, meeting up easily and ambling down to the starting chute. This took up most of The Mall, so we waiting in the funnel with Queenie’s London flat glinting behind us in the sun. Here’s where I made my first error as I started the GPS app on my watch but didn’t pause it properly, so our half hour wait ended up counting towards my time and gave me no idea of my time while running. One thing the watch was good for was reading text messages, and I was alerted to Dana’s position just after the starting line. We edged our way over to her side of the course to pose for photos as we went past, before shooting up The Mall through Admiralty Arch and round Nelson’s Column.
One of the other reasons for choosing this 10k in particular was the course. It took us from Buckingham Palace to the City of London and back again, passing major tourist sites like Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street and St Paul’s Cathedral. Not only that but it was rare to see them from the road without dodging buses, taxis and Deliveroo drivers. Sadly I was too focussed on the race to really pay much attention. We followed Roxy Music’s advice and did The Strand, passing Savoy Court (the only road in the UK where it’s legal to drive on the right rather than the left) and the crowds of cheering people noticeably thinned out as The Strand became Fleet Street and we took a left up Chancery Lane.
Thankfully this worked out well for runners as the road was significantly narrower and at several times we needed to overtake slower runners on the pavement. We passed a girl wearing an Argentina shirt with McGhee on the back – not the weirdest shirt I saw all day, as there was a runner wearing a Gambia away shirt. A hard right along Holborn down the rest of the A40 and the sun was really starting to lay down on us. At the 3k mark I grabbed two bottles of water to rehydrate – one I tipped over my head to cool me down and rinse the sweat out of my eyes. This point was my intended stopping point to walk for a bit and catch my breath but my legs hadn’t given me much trouble so I pressed on with Paul.
Round the BT building the crowds were non-existent so the sponsors had provided choirs and bands to give atmosphere. Nice, except at this point a lovely gospel choir chose to serenade us with Seasons Of Love, from a musical where (spoiler alert) most of the cast die of AIDS. Not really the atmosphere I would’ve chosen, although the guy raising money for an HIV charity seemed to appreciate it. Holborn became Cheapside, and we passed the exact spot where my family stand for the Lord Mayor’s Show when we watch it.
The route meandered through the City, increasing the length for the required 10k (the starting line was quite far down The Mall) and we passed one of my favourite bits of inadvertently political road naming – Trump Street, which is next to Russia Row. Round the back of the Bank Of England in the cool shade of the high buildings crammed along narrow medieval streets we passed the favourite part of an out and back course – the turning point! From here I’d have to come back along the course to get to the end so I may as well finish it. After the 5k split timing mats my stamina showed and I slowed down for a breather, leaving Paul to dash off ahead. Someone who only got into running a few months ago, and he’s already faster than me.
I walked the length of Queen Victoria Street, and started to jog past St Paul’s Cathedral. The on course showers were much needed and helped keep me cool – the rest of my water was going down my throat or over my forehead. I picked up three more bottles at the water stop after the 6k mark and turned down a glass-sided canyon of buildings which had no respite from the sun. At this point we were approaching 11am and the sun was burning off the early morning cool. A turn back onto Fleet Street saw a pass of the 7k mark and an increase in crowds lining both sides of the street. By now the heat had gone to my head and I spent the next 1.5 kilometres in a state of delirium, feeding off the cheers and high fiving anyone who stuck their hand out to me.
Down Whitehall we passed 10 Downing Street, but more importantly my skintight cheap running top got recognised and someone shouted “run, Flash, run”! Round the top of Parliament Square we all got a shift on to get back into the blessed shade of the various Civil Service buildings, and then the final dash along Birdcage Walk. I sent Dana an alert to let her know I was within 400 metres and started picking up the pace. Passing the 100m mark I was surprised to see how close the finishing line was and sprinted toward it. I had plenty left in the tank – I should’ve started to kick on much sooner. I ran over the line with a final total of 1 hour, 10 minutes and 22 seconds – not a bad time in the heat, but I should really have done better.
A gentle parkrun ahead of me on Saturday, sticking to a slower 7 min/km pace to hopefully go round without stopping. In the next month or so I’ll (hopefully) hit the magic 50 parkrun mark, which I’m looking forward to!
