6th April 2025

Those who know me well,  know I have a real hatred of flat and fast 10k races. I last did one 3 years earlier and despite getting a PB I hated every minute, I set off too fast and  destroyed myself trying to push through a head wind. I was left feeling really ill after suffering with bad asthma . Since then I decided I really didn’t like feeling that uncomfortable so would pick races that I could enjoy .

The only reason I entered this race was because my hubby and sister-in-law  wanted to do it. There was no way I was go going to race it full pelt, I was recovering from medial stress syndrome,  had done only 1 speed session in the last 6 months and had 2 ultras coming up in a matter of weeks. So I decided on a nice tempo pace, starting at current half marathon pace of 4:55 min/km and would aim for a negative split.

On race day we arrived at the start which was at Pride park stadium and met my sister-in-law who had picked up our race packs earlier in the week (no option to pick up on the day) . In the race packs were our t-shirts which were pretty impressive despite saying DNS on the chest, I know this was a sponsor but still thought it was pretty funny and might tempt fate. (See pic).

I placed myself in the start near the 50 minute sign and soon enough we were off. Running felt easy enough so thought I was running at the right pace but when I looked at my watch it said 4:35, so I slowed down but still did the first KM in 4:42. I thought there wasn’t much chance of keeping that pace and the negative split would be out the window but sod it I’d try anyway. It actually felt comfortable for about 6km so I decided I could cope with 4km of not feeling comfortable and picked up the pace.  My average paced dropped to 4:39 which is my PB pace so I pushed to drop it to 4:38 with my watch ticking over 10km in 46:19, (a 6 second PB), well it would have been but I couldn’t even see the finish line, it was around the corner and 30 seconds later I crossed it in 46:48. Slightly annoying but I am genuinely surprised I got anywhere near it, plus I got that negative split (see pic) .

The course was mainly flat, with about 6 bridges acting as hills. It was pretty dull apart from running through the city centre about half way. I guess a dull course makes you want to run faster to get it over with though, so yes it’s definitely a PB course. I wouldn’t go back but that’s because I don’t like 10ks. I’ve included my finish picture for amusement.

Strider results