Last weekend I ran the Caerphilly 10k road race with my Pegs. It was my first race since the Manchester Marathon (did I mention I ran a marathon??). Also since my IT band injury decided to feature in my life so I was a bit nervous.
My nerves were soon quashed when I met up with my running buddies.
The start…
I knew that Caerphilly wasn’t flat and was prepared for the hills but the first one was about a minute from the start line. Not fun! I put my head down, paced myself and got up that hill without killing my race. As we all know what goes up must come down and I love a good downhill.
The rain was actually quite refreshing and helped to keep me cool during the tough sections, well that’s what I kept telling myself anyway.
Race goal…
My goal for this race was purely to finish it without my knee giving in. I’d been going to physio and doing all the exercises and stretches that she told me to do so I was quite confident that me and my IT band could pull this off. I just wanted to finish without walking and without pain.
At about 4km (ish) we were running up a steady climb and I started talking to a fellow runner. Claire was doing her first ever race. We chatted for a while and discovered that we had the same race goal – just to get it done!
We were matching each other’s pace really well so stuck together and kept each other going. I hadn’t run further than 5 miles since the marathon and had only just been running regularly again for a couple of weeks so my fitness level felt dreadful.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I could run 6 miles without having to walk and know that I probably would’ve given in if it wasn’t for Claire.
The finish…
After a lot of running and a lot of nattering we approached the finish line and my Pegs were there to cheer me on.
We crossed the finish line and I had completed my goal. I had finish the 10k without walking and without pain. NO PAIN!! Also, I completed my secret goal which was to finish in under 1 hour and 10 minutes. I did it in 1 hour 9 minutes and 36 seconds!
I picked up my medal, t-shirt, goodie bag and quite possibly the smallest banana I’ve ever seen.
Confidence restored…
So the next step for me is to continue running (obviously) but the hard work has to continue. I need to slowly increase my mileage again as well as focus on my speed. I want to get faster so I have to run faster even when it’s uncomfortable and my body is screaming for me to slow down.
The cross training and the strength training is really helping too. I also need to do more hill work with Caroline and her posse of pain lovers so will join them on their Monday night session of misery very soon.
I’ve signed up for 3 more races this year. The first is the Severn Bridge half marathon at the end of August. It will give me a good indication on how much I need to improve for the Cardiff half marathon in October where I’m still planning to smash my PB.
I’m also doing the Cardiff 10K in September and want to beat last year’s time. I’ll probably enter a few other races along the way but these are the 3 I want to focus on.
Wish me luck!
