Mrs HMC's sub hour challenge - Old Deer Park 10k Report

On Sunday I returned to the home of my PB. The Old Deer Park 10k. Flat, towpath for the majority of the run and plenty of room. It's up there with my favourite 10k's. Yesterday's plan was different to last time though. My lovely wife has been doing lots of running recently and really wanted a sub hour 10k. My job therefore was to run with her, encourage and make sure she didn't finish in 1:00:01 or something like that!!


Her previous training 10k was 1:00:45 so she was nearly there but as she's really been suffering this last week with a cold, chesty cough, and anything else your son tends to bring home from nursery, it was always going to be tight.


A very early start in the morning (05:45am!!! ON A SUNDAY!!!) following a full day in the garden digging and setting up a raised vegetable bed was not good but we were all up, fed and watered and we all jumped in the car along with the in-laws who were very kindly looking after the duracell bunny (i.e. The Boy who just not know how to walk. Run, run, run or fall. They're your 4 options!).


Getting to Kew in plenty of time, we did some warming up (i.e. chasing the D.B. round the field) and then met up with a few members of the Run England group that Mrs HMC has been running with once a week.


Luck was wished, hands were shaken and before long, we were off. I'm sure I don't need to do the maths but to run a 10k in under an hour you need to run in under 6 minute km's. The plan was to head out easy, get the legs stretch and finish strongly. A 5:28 1st km was NOT the plan. We slowed. Not enough. A 5:37 was followed by a 5:44 before we finally settled down to around the 6 min mark, albeit with nearly a minute and a quarter 'in the bank'. 5km was run through in 28:41 which means we were on track but it had taken it's toll.


With a permanently blocked nose, Mrs HMC was struggling to breath easily which made drinking even more difficult as you close off your only air way when you swallow. She asked to slow and so we steadied out the pace in just over our magic 6 minute kilometres but with the nagging thought that we already taking from our time bank. Keeping the pace around the 6:05/6:10 pace for the next 4km, it looked like we were going to succeed.


Loads of encouragement and nearly there's from me and we had picked up the pace again for the final km. You have to cross a little pedestrian bridge before you run across the field towards the finish. It's quite tight but does give you the sense of 'nearly there'. Mrs HMC went for it and picked up the pace as soon as we'd hit the field but maybe a little too early. 100 metres from the finish, she told me she was going to throw up to which I replied 'not yet you're not, only once you've finished'. The loving support and affection is the thing that won her heart in the first place.


Cheering was coming from the crowd near the finish line and she picked it up again to sprint finish and come in 58:28! 

A LOT OF DETERMINATION THERE

She smashed the hour target while not feeling well and hardly being able to breath and no, she didn't throw up in the end either! So, so proud of her and she's already asking which race we can sign up for next! I think sub 55 minutes has to be the next target but that's going to take some work. And some bullying.

LOOKING FRESH ONCE IT WAS OVER

Old Deer Park 10k - Birthday Race Report

It's my birthday and I'll run if I want to. That was my philosophy when I booked this race. Described as flat and fast, I wanted a PB for my birthday. As I've mentioned before, I've never gone into a race aiming for a PB so this had potential to fail big time. However, I'm please to say, I didn't. Fail that is...

Getting the family up early for a drive to Kew on a Sunday morning, I knew it was meant to be chilly although I didn't expect this at 7:30am this morning. Would we even find Kew???

 
I'm glad to say we did, so parked up and wrapped up, off into the cold we went. We followed the mass of runners heading to the start area and I picked up my timing chip and tried to stay warm.

I'd heard a lot of negative reviews about the organisation of this race in events gone by but I have to say, it was fantastically done this time. The only exception to this was apart from your number and a couple of advertising leaflets, we got nothing through the post so working out what to do on the day was more guesswork than anything but considering all I had to do was pick up a timing chip, it wasn't exactly difficult.

With 5 minutes to go, I headed to the start and left Mrs HMC and The Boy to wander the park. The organisers started calling people forward by expected finishing time and knowing I wanted to go sub 49, I headed to the front of the sub 50 group.

Visibility had slightly improved at the start but those KM markers were destined to come from nowhere during the race.

The first 3 km are along the roads which were very well marshaled before hitting the Thames towpath for the rest of the race. Well at least I think it was the Thames. There was only about a metre of it visible but it was certainly cold and wet looking so I guess it must have been.

A couple of quick early kilometres got time in the bank and by the 4th KM, I knew I could run the rest at 5 minute KM and PB which was a nice thing to know. I then eased off to around that pace for the next few until 7km and then decided it was time to see if I could push on further.

At around 7.5km, you reach the part of the course where the quick runners are coming back towards you  before they veer off to the finish but this is also the point where the supporters are, cameras in hand.

RUNNING IN MY NOW DEFAULT BLUE TOP AND WHITE CAP

This was the only bit I found tough, running towards people who had already done the bit I needed to do but head down (well it's not exactly like there was a view) I plodded on while attempting to keep my footing on the cobbles. The wet and VERY slippery cobbles. Luckily there were only around 100m of them and then at 8.5km, it was time to turn for home. 

As usual for me at this point, it was keep running at the same pace, clock your 9km time then see what you can do to get you to the finish. A 4:35km was the answer giving me a finishing time of 47:53 and soggy feet from the grass.

After the medal, water, banana and Ribena, I found Mrs HMC and The Boy and we headed out to get some brunch in an old toilet. I'm not being nasty here, Arthurs on the Green is a converted toilet who served me a great cooked breakfast with loads of coffee and fresh orange juice. Just what a PB cracking birthday boy deserved!