Dame Kelly Holmes Trust QEOP 10k

After the previous day's race, I didn't feel brilliant on Sunday morning. I had a pretty sore right calf muscle and two stiff and sore ankles. I knew lots of determination would be necessary to see me run the whole thing, but if I could do that then who knew what was possible.

I really like this particular version of the Olympic Park course. Leave the start, turn right across a bridge, in front of the Aquatic Centre, towards the back of the stadium navigating a couple of pavements and a short gravel section, loop back away from the park again around the front between the park and the Westfield centre, up the main path towards the London Stadium but turn right along the path, around a patch of grass at the far end and return towards the Arcelor Mittal Orbit going round the back of it then down the side to return towards the finish area. That's 5k and we did two of those.

The appeal of the course is the lack of long dull straights. Yeah the decent and climb up towards John Lewis and the new tower being built is quite long-ish but once again the climb felt OK and was a place to gain time.

For once, I think I paced myself really well. Most of the first half saw me on 26 minute pace for 5k although in the opening bit of lap two this slipped a little to a mid-53 minute 10k. I obviously kept enough back because I joined a right old tear up towards the finish. I was accelerating through the last kilometer and caught someone on the final straight, except he tried to hold me off by speeding up too. We both caught up another guy who didn't fancy being beaten that day either.

So all three of us came steaming in to the finish at sprinting speeds nearly flattening a couple of people but the results showed I won that little battle. It was good fun.

What the results also showed was that my acceleration brought me over the line at 52:18, my second fastest 10k race ever and my best since Regent's Park this time last year. A time beyond what I'd dared hope for but one I loved achieving.

Now time to enjoy a little time without a run more stressful than Parkrun.

Type: 
Run
Workout_type: 
race
Date: 
2016-12-11T10:02:04Z
Avg Pace: 
5:17/km
Elevation: 
0
Distance: 
9913.4
Moving time: 
3144
Activity id: 
799313167
Strava title: 
Dame Kelly Holmes Trust QEOP 10k
Total photo count: 
3
Title: 
Dame Kelly Holmes Trust QEOP 10k
Summary Polyline: 
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Average speed: 
3.153
Language: 
English
Cover image: 
https://dgtzuqphqg23d.cloudfront.net/QDHqOr3BWbQCYUT9I5UxLGIGIMOK3PhwxzbxbDMXGqs-1024x576.jpg
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