Leeds 10k 2015

Since starting up South Leeds Lakers in February there are certain things that I've said so often that they are starting to sound odd.  "Lets go for a run" and "Hills are your friends" are fast becoming annoying catch phrases, but "Not every run can be a good run", said almost every week for the last 22 weeks, is possibly something that I need to take to heart.

This weekend was the Leeds 10k.  It was the 3rd time in 3 years that I was running it and, during the week leading up to Sunday morning, I started to feel quite confident.  It had been my 1st ever race in 2013, I'd seen a massive improvement in 2014, and I felt like it was on the cards for me to improve again this year.

I set off to Millennium Square bright and early as per usual however, unlike the last two years, I wasn't alone.  Gary joined me for the walk in for his 1st Leeds 10k, and around 30 people who I know from running in South Leeds met us on the steps of the City Museum.  We stood around talking race strategy and telling tales of how we had done in previous years, whilst giving advice to our friends who had never run a 10k race before.  The atmosphere was great and rather than the usual pre-race nerves I was being swept along by a group's excitement.

South Leeds Lakers and Hunslet Hawks. One happy family.

We soon went our separate way to find our starting pens and I made the decision that my time in the  Hull 10k a few weeks ago wasn't a fluke and that I could at least achieve the same time again.  All I needed to do was maintain a pace around 4:30min/k and 45:30 would be mine.  If I managed to go just a little bit quicker my dream of a sub a 45 10k could become a reality.

Unlike Burnley a couple of weekends ago there was no delay in the start and we were off just as the temperatures started to climb.  The first couple of kilometres were over in a flash and before I knew it I was already on Kirkstall Road with the voices of friends shouting my name ringing in my ears for encouragement.

The 40 minute pace runner had disappeared into the distance but I was still keeping a good pace. I was inside what I wanted at the 4k point but I was already starting to feel tired.  I grabbed a bottle of water at the first water station took a couple of sips and pressed on, well aware that my pace was already slowing.  5k came and went with what would have been a parkrun PB but by the time I was through 6k I knew that I was losing valuable seconds.

I don't like running back into town on Kirkstall Road at the best of times.  It is a featureless stretch of tedious tarmac that has the ability to sap the strength from my legs.  No matter what I tried I just couldn't get any pace back.  Every attempt at increasing my cadence, thinking about breathing, working my arms, brought the same result.  By 8k I knew that I would miss out on running sub 45 and by 9k I knew, even with a strong last minute push along Westgate and The Headrow, that I was going to miss the PB that I had set in Hull.

I crossed the finish line outside the town hall in 45:48, 4:04 faster than last year.  Over twenty minutes faster than my first Leeds 10k two years ago.  I should have been over the moon but no.  I felt deflated.  I'd missed out on the Hull 10k time by 18 seconds and sub 45 felt like it was a life time away.

I know that I should have been listening to my own advice and that "Not every run can be a good run".  I also know that 45:48 is a good time for 10k and that my training recently has been all about the marathon and running for longer not for going faster.  But none of that is giving me any comfort.  Last year I would have ripped your arms off if you had offered me that time but there and then, at the end of the 2015 Leeds 10k it felt like the worst time possible.

At the start of the year I laid out my aims and targets for 2015.  The top target for the year is getting around the 26.2 miles of the Yorkshire Marathon.  Going sub 45 for 10k was only ever going to be a happy byproduct of that training, if it actually happened.  I now need to hold onto that and move on.  There will be other races and other chances to push myself harder and faster but for now I have a new PB for the Leeds 10k and a date with a 17 mile training run on Sunday.