London Winter 10km, 15 Feb 2026

Coming in to this race I was super excited to see what I could do. Having raced it in 2023 I knew it was a flat and fast course with an epic last 500m slightly downhill which you can just let rip on.

I’ve been running well, and got a 5km PB last October but haven’t had an opportunity to try and get a 10km PB as my last race was shortly after I’d given blood and was on quite a rolling course. So today was the day I was going to go for it.

I had big hopes for the PB – my current 10k PB was 49:01 but having run a 21:54 5k I was hoping to get as close to 45 minutes as I could. So that was the plan, set off at 4:30/km and see how long I could hold on for.

The morning of the race was pretty grim weather, about 2 degrees and torrential rain so wasn’t sure how that would impact my race, I’d also started telling myself I could run a PB even if it wasn’t the PB I had hoped for. I made my way to the start pen to set off in the second wave and did my best not to freeze, maybe dumping my jumper a little too early, but alas!

Previously my gps had the course coming up short so I didn’t register a PB the last time I raced it, so I started my watch a bit before the start line to ensure I would run through 10km. Next thing I was over the start line and off!

I set off what felt like a good speed, dodging a few people but mostly had a good line to run, overtaking quite a lot of people, which made me nervous in case I was running too hard, but it felt good. The first km ticked by and I came through in 4:25, a little fast but feeling good. The second km continued well, registering another 4:25 and then at about 2.5km I got a stitch right over my diaphragm - grim! So I eased off a little, clenched my fists and hoped it would pass. The third km was a little slower but still above target coming in on 4:29, stitch still there. The 4th km was another 4:29 and I was feeling good albeit the stitch and it finally decided to disappear at about 4.5km. Coming in to 5km I posted a 4:28 - I’ve never been great at negative splitting so I was doing some running maths to calculate my buffer which was about 13 seconds at this point.

I continued on, shielding my face from the rain with my visor but also meaning I didn’t really register any of the sights, woops! Or maybe my head was just so in the game!

Km 6 was fast, posting a 4:19 and I was still feeling good, pushing but like I could make it to 10k without blowing up - that in itself was a huge confidence boost. I continued through the next kms still faster than target and enjoying it so much. Coming into the final km I was excited for the last downhill, I held steady and then pushed it through the last section.

As I started my watch early, I ended up running 10.22km, posting a 10km split of 43:58 - 1 minute faster than I had even dreamed of!! Chip time came through as 44:52 so officially reaching my goal as well! Dead chuffed!

Lottie Lindsley