London Winter 10k, 5 Feb 2023

My first (well, technically second) 10k race - but definitely my first 10km road race and first 10km that wasn't part of a triathlon or a cross country race. I was excited, but also determined, as I knew I was more than capable of getting a PB based on my current running form. 

A nice journey into London, first stop was the loo (plenty of portaloos) and bag drop. This was then followed by my warm-up, which consisted more of a frantic run around to find my brother (who was running wave 1) to give him his bag tag. Sadly no luck finding my brother, but good for me that I had managed quite a nice little warm-up trying to locate him!

Then it was time for my wave (the pink wave) to join the funnel, aim here was to stay warm - with temperatures at about 4 degrees (with feels like temperatures of 1 degree), I kept my jumper on as long as possible, and tried to stay in the sun wherever I could.

Before I knew it, we were getting towards the start-line. I had my Garmin ready for a workout, so that I could stay within PB pace zone, next thing I knew we were crossing the line... and I couldn't get my Garmin to start (typical, having been so prepared!) - finally after about 200m or so, I managed to get it going. The first km, as it often is with such big events (13000 total!), was spent dodging people, skipping up on to the pavement and zig-zagging from right to left to find the best path forward (sorry to any runners if that was really annoying!). The first km came and went super fast, but my watch dinged the KM time and it was about 15 seconds slower than I needed to average, so I consciously picked up the pace which consequently meant less buzzing from my watch too! I set into a lovely rhythm, focusing on the runners in front of me, which meant I didn't notice my breathing too much (such a blessing!). The next 2km were faster than I needed to go for a PB, but the pace didn't feel too tough (conscious I still had 7km to go), so I stuck with it.

The route took us out through the West End, past the Bank of England and St Paul's Cathedral - so many sites to see! This also helped distract me from the ‘pain’ of the race. After the 5km mark, I started to pick it up a little to see if I could hold on and my km times came down, but still felt good. With 1km to go I really picked it up, knowing I could get a big PB - the amazing thing about this course is that the last 500m or so are slightly downhill from Trafalgar Square towards Westminster which really allowed you to open up your stride and sprint for the line!

I crossed the line and knew I had a PB, but wasn't entirely sure of my time because starting my watch late meant I hadn't actually hit 10km - but I only had to wait a couple of hours before my chip time came through, with a 3.5 minute PB, super chuffed! Although ever so slightly dissappointed as I was 3seconds off sub-50 (something I couldn't have dreamed of before the day) - so it has left me hungry for more and also confident that my running ability is improving a huge amount with Tim's great coaching.

I will be back next year on this fantastic course!

Lottie Lindsley