Petts Wood 10k - All the Tens

Part 1 – Pre-Race – 9/10/10

As I write, it is Saturday afternoon on the 9th October, the day before my next race: the Petts Wood 10K, which is at 10.10am on the 10th of the 10th of the 10th. I am really looking forward to this race. I’m not fund-raising this time (I wouldn’t dream of asking anyone for sponsorship so soon after my last race!), and I’m not feeling under pressure to beat my last time. This is because I know that I probably won’t, as I haven’t been able to train as much as I should because of Mum’s accident (see previous blog post: Scaphoid).

Katie Bertie and her husband Dave are both running too, and have told me it is a fantastic multi-terrain course winding through farmland and National Trust woodland, as well as village streets. Apparently it has been voted the 9th best 10K in the England!

So, I’m just going to enjoy the race, the company, the scenery and not worry too much about my time. But I am definitely hoping for another sub-60.

My race number is 370, which I think is a pretty nice number. And this time I have a “chip” – a little device worn on the ankle that is scanned when I cross the start and finish lines, allowing my time to be recorded accurately. I like this a lot, being a lover of all things technological!

So, my training for the last week or so leading up to this race has looked a little like this:

Four trips to the gym to run on the treadmill, but only time for three lots of 6K and one 7K. One long 9 mile run – the same route I did in my blog post “It’s All Relative” - I didn’t time this run at all, but just wanted to know if I could still manage the distance. And it was a great run – lovely cool clear sunny day, beautiful countryside, amazing views, and I managed the distance comfortably. It was reassuring to know that my fitness levels obviously hadn’t dropped too much, but I think I would have struggled if I had tried for a fast time.

The next day (Friday – 2 days before Petts Wood) I had planned on a final 5k training run, but my knees were pretty sore after the 9 miles, so I thought best to just rest them and not risk injury so close to the race.

So that’s all the training that I can do… Petts Wood 10k 2010 is tomorrow morning. I have really enjoyed fuelling up on carb-heavy foods today (any excuse!) and am hoping for a good night’s sleep (I’m a terrible insomniac, so it’s not very likely), as it will be an early start in the morning.

Part 2 - The Race – 10/10/10

Ten past ten on the tenth of the tenth two-thousand-and-ten found me and Katie Bertie, along with some of her other running friends, the “Green Street Green Girls” (Katie lives in Green St Green), in the starting pens at Willett Recreation Ground, Petts Wood, along with 670-odd other runners.

The race began and it took a few minutes to reach the starting line, where our official start-times were recorded via our ankle chips. The course began with a single lap around the recreation ground and then out of the field onto the streets where local roads had been closed to traffic for the first part of the race.

Katie Bertie and I stuck together for about the first 500 metres and then decided to go at our own paces and meet at the finish line - I soon lost sight of her in the crowds, and for the rest of the race I had no idea whether she was in front or behind me.

The course was definitely varied: streets giving way to country paths through the woods, fields, a footbridge over railway tracks, more woods, farmland, and finishing with a final kilometre through residential streets. There were lots of hills too and I found myself struggling a couple of times and slowing to a walk, with bad stitch in my right side. This is only the second time I have got stitch when running, and I was desperately trying to remember the tips I had learnt to get rid of it from the last time (see blog post: Bananas), but I just couldn’t recall the breathing techniques I’d read about. It was extremely annoying seeing all the people I had overtaken in the previous few kilometres come zooming past me while I could only walk.

In the end I just had to run through the pain and it eventually went away. In the final kilometre my time was looking quite good and I thought I might do a similar time to my previous 10k at Bedgebury – 57.08 - but then came the hill-of-death: a 600 metre long ascent which slowed me down despite my best efforts. That last kilometre was a real struggle! But the final 100 metres was great, with a good crowd cheering the runners to the finish line, giving a real boost and some extra speed just when it was needed.

I crossed the line at 58.17, which I was fairly happy with. It would have been nice to get a new personal best, but Katie Bertie told me afterwards that the Petts Wood 10k wasn’t known for being a personal best course, because of all the hills and the mixed terrain.

So where was Katie Bertie? Well, I collected my medal, goody-bag and (most importantly) drink of water, and went back to the crowd at the finish line to see if I could find her, just in time to see her crossing the line. I couldn’t believe I had beaten her! But, I have to say, Katie is much more of a long distance runner and regularly does 10 mile and half-marathon races, and is working towards her second full marathon in April. I can only dream of being able to run that far at the moment.

We had both finished before the rest of the Green Street Green Girls, so we went to cheer them across the finish line too. And then the next half hour or so was spent eating bananas, comparing finish times, taking photographs and generally enjoying the atmosphere. And I particularly enjoyed just being still, and not having to RUN any more!

Just for fun, I have included Katie Bertie’s notes on the race, below, and she has included me as an honorary member of the Green Street Green Girls. (She has years’ worth of pristine, hand-written running diaries – I am in awe!)

...beautiful weather for running with beautiful friends. 5 GSG girlies plus Dave & me - Yippee! A tough run, started off too fast and consequently ended up walking half the hill (damn). Relieved to get through the woods and back on to roads and even more relieved to see the finish. 59:36 oh dear I'm going backwards! but enjoyed every min of it (afterwards) and Katie beat me by 1 min 19 secs - note to self ...must eat more marmite! Wore new Nimbus 12's [running shoes] for the first time ever, luxury cushioning compared to old ones! No ankle niggles today :)

Distance run in miles (since last blog post): 30.6
Distance in October (so far): 30.6
Total since starting blog (21/6/10): 290