Jazz Hands!
I signed up for this race a while back without really considering how it would sit in my training schedule. However, it’s a fairly local race so I made my way across West London on the Sunday morning to join my fellow Eagles for a flat & fast 10k course.
There were some notable speedsters warming-up as I queued to collect my race pack and I made my way to the nearby club house as runners jogged around the sports field. I faffed about pinning the race number onto my vest and eventually made my way outside to join the others running around the field.
Everyone soon gathered in the start funnel although unfortunately I wasn’t able to hear the pre-race briefing due to my presence at the back of the pack. The race started and I was soon jogging down the road as a few motorists were being held to let the stream of runners past. One car contained a young gentleman with a bemused look on his face, where I suspect his confused grin came from the copious amount herbal cigarette he seemed to me enjoying with his friend. I certainly didn’t expect to jog past Cheech & Chong at 9am on a Sunday morning.
We looped round to join the Thames footpath for an enjoyable jaunt by the river, up until Teddington Lock area where we turned back onto the local streets. The course consisted of 2 laps and I was lapped by the first 3 finishers just before I reached the left turn back to the river for the second lap.
I treated the race as a training run so kept my pace fairly low but then picked up the pace for the final 2km. I started to visualise myself in a race situation and locked onto the runner in front of my with the aim to reel them in. I did manage to misjudge the finish and was going way too fast when I realised that there was an extra 400m or so looping past the start / finish on the grass section.
The rain just started to fall as I passed the finish line so I grabbed my race finishers mug, containing a banana and chocolate bar, and made my way back to the shelter of the club house. I was feeling wiped out after the exertions of the final 2km so I stretched for a little while before making my way straight back to the car.
This is a friendly & popular race where you certainly see some fast runners at the front of the pack; first man finished in 0:30:45 and first woman in 0:34:44. Still, there was a range of abilities and I enjoyed my run. It’s certainly a flat course and I hope to in PB shape when I return next year.
- Place: 380 out of 440
- Category: Senior Men
- Finish Time (chip): 0:54:49
- Finish Time (gun): 0:55:13
- Finish Time (Garmin): 0:54:50
