My first 10k

well I managed to start and finish my first ever 10k yesterday (27/11/2010). The race itself was sprung upon me a few weeks ago by a friend, and so I said I would do it.

The race itself is one that is fondly looked upon in the northwest (well preston area at least) and is called the Wesham 10K. This year was it's 25th aniversary and was fully booked up.

I must say I enjoyed the race immensly, although the weather was a numbing -3, and I was only in a t-shirt and shorts; Brrrrrrrr.

After an initial warm up, we headed off to the start line. Here I walked to the back (I'll be quicker one day) and chatted with some of the other slower racers. Then the race started and the chip timer started beeping us all out.

I managed to cross the 1st, 2nd and 3rd checkpoints in intervals of 9, 18 and 27 minutes. So I can safely say I can hold a consistent speed of 9mph. As it was my first race, I didn't want to burn myself out, and wanted to run the entire length. I suspect I could of gone a little quicker.

After the first 5k, I upped my speed to a staggering 8min&55 seconds per mile. yep, pretty pathetic really. The last mile I dropped back to 9mins and 30 secs (well they forgot to mention the hill!).

So overall I finished with a time of 55Mins and 50 seconds (which strangely is around 9mph).

Am I happy, well yes but I'm also annoyed that I didn't break 55mins. That will have to wait for the next race!!


Signing off

Alan Raby aka The Snail

Been a longer while!

well it;s been a while since I updated this blog. well that's mainly due to university getting in the way (started uni at the ripe old age of 36).

Anyway, since wrecking my foot after an 11 mile run, I finally got back into the spirit of things. I now cycle to uni, have joined the gym and run about 6 miles/wk and cycle around 25miles/wk.

So all in all, I'm as fit as ever, but doing a bit less running.

I've recently been upping my milage and I successfully managed a 10k at the gym, in a time of 1hr 5 mins. Pretty good going really, still had the legs to do more.

Also managed at the gym a 27 min 5km, which I was quite proud of.

So, although a lot of my running is now gym work, I'm a lot fitter than my last blog post.

Alan Raby