Ellesmere 10km

This weekend I had the choice of the following:
* 3 mile tempo, (2min jog) 2 mile tempo
* 5x1mile tempo (2 min jog rec)
* 10km race

Looking at the target paces for the sessions I decided doing a 10km race would be far and away the easiest option!
I find it much, much easier to run fast in a race situation - there's something about having people around me also taking things seriously that helps me focus. Recently I've been able to focus pretty well during tempo sessions and get my head down and hit my target times, but this week I was suffering with a bit of jet lag and was pretty tired from my week in Canada with work.

I found a nice, supposedly fast, 10km in Ellesmere, Shropshire - which fitted quite nicely into our plans of visiting my family over the bank holiday weekend.

Unfortunately finding the race was pretty much the only bit of planning which went well! I was super tired from Canada, and still jet lagged, so I woke up late on the Sunday morning, struggle to get ready in time and we then got stuck behind slow moving traffic on the twisty roads to Ellesmere. I arrived 15 mins before the start of the race so I just had time to get my number on, dash to the loo and get my racers on.

It was the first time I'd even tried my racers on in over a year, and as soon as I tried to jog in them I remembered exactly why I'd left it so long - somehow the right shoe is far too narrow, despite them being exactly the same size as all my other Saucony trainers! With my other trainers being totally soaked from yesterday's training session, I had a choice of totally wet shoes or slightly small shoes. I went for the slightly small shoes hoping they'd loosen up. Which they actually did, but not until 6km!

I was also feeling dehydrated from the start, despite having downed pints of water and a bottle of powerade in the morning. I guess I hadn't rehydrated properly after Saturday's session (10 min run, 25min bike, 15min run) and I struggled in the heat, finishing the race with a headache!
The race itself actually worked out as a great tempo session. I started running with pretty much the same group of people, going through kms in just over 4 mins till I hit 5km in 20.18. As you can see from the photos taken at 1km, 7km and the finish, I was running with the same group of people pretty much all the way - good pacing from us all I think!

I slowed a bit over the last 5km and I could have sworn the last hill was a lot steeper than it was. In fact I was telling my boyfriend, wait till you see this really steep hill we had to run up, and when we got to it I saw it wasn't much of a hill at all - on the way round it felt like Snowdon! There are some excellent photos from Bryan Dale and it was a lovely, well organised and well supported race in pretty countryside. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more without the last 2 weeks of training, travelling and jet lag affecting me, but it served it's purpose as an alternative to a tempo session!

I finished 8th Lady in 41.07 which is a Season's Best so I can't be too disappointed! My 5km split of 20.18 is only a few seconds outside my 5km SB, so I'm hopeful of going under 20 in my next 5km. I've also got a 10km planned in a couple of weeks, the City of Salford 10km, which I'm going to ease off a little for and hopefully get under 41 mins!

Unfortunately I didn't have much of a sprint finish at the end and narrowly missed out on 7th - hopefully I'll have time to get some speed in my legs before the next 10km!
Results available here

Top 10 Women:

Pos	Name	Club	Chip Time	Pace from Gun
1	Michelle Ross-Cope	City of Stoke	00:35:16	5:41 min/m
2	Kim Fawke	Telford A.C.	00:36:23	5:52 min/m
3	Mandy Vernon	Trentham A.C.	00:37:52	6:07 min/m
4	Clare Thurgood	Orion Harriers	00:39:26	6:22 min/m
5	Laura Gray	B.R.A.T	00:39:49	6:25 min/m
6	Becky Lewis	Unattached		6:34 min/m
7	Emily Dove	Whitchurch Whippets	00:41:06	6:38 min/m
8	Sarah Mackness	Telford A.C.	00:41:07	6:39 min/m
9	Jacqui Smith	Oswestry Olympians	00:43:07	6:59 min/m
10	Catherine Voyce	Shropshire Shufflers	00:44:31	7:12 min/m

Before the next 10km I'm going to get myself some new racers - I think I might go back to Nike's as I loved my Nike Zoom Marathoners. I'm also looking forward to getting some more training in and then easing off a couple of days before the race so I have a bit more bounce in my legs! Salford Quays should be a much flatter course than Ellesmere, though with £250 for first place it's likely to be a much higher quality race - can't wait!