OTTY National Convention 10K

I ran this 10K race yesterday morning, set in the leafy and attractive grounds around Harima Park, Hyogo. I’ve got a warm up routine that I like to go through before each race. About 40 minutes before the gun is fired, I do a run of about 2 miles, starting very slowly and building up the pace. Then I do about 5 minutes of stretching, followed by five or six 80-100 metre striders at goal race pace, before joining the start line.

Getting my excuses in: as I did the first mile of my warm up yesterday, I realised that this was not going to be a day for fast times, with the first mile of the course being almost entirely uphill. The weather was muggy and overcast. Sweat dripped from my arms onto the ground as I leant against a wall during one of my stretches. So, it’s going to be a warm race, I thought to myself.

The race course consisted of two 5K undulating loops on tarmacked paths. The race field was fairly large and I remained near the front throughout. However, there can be no mistaking the fact that I had a bad run! Sometimes when you race, though you’re suffering, you feel strong and can churn out the miles. Not yesterday. I had thought that having had a solid run at the Osaka 5000M track race four weeks ago, equalling my PB, I’d have a chance of running well in this race.

Though it was a struggle throughout, I was still surprised to see a time of 37 minutes 8 seconds on my watch when I crossed the finish line in about 10^th place. Rather disappointing given the amount of time and effort that I expend in training and seems to cast serious doubt over my sub-34 minute ambitions. Was it the heat? Was it the undulating course? Got the training wrong? Whatever the answer, I was the 2^nd male finisher aged 30-39 years of age, and as a result won a huge bag of Hyogo produced rice. This has to be the most unexpected prize I’ve ever won in a race, but certainly very welcome!