I met up with my friend, Karen, who I go to Newcastle Parkrun with and my fellow Tyne Bridge Harrier, Davina, who has missed a bit of training recently. Karen is way faster than I am, but Davina and I decided to run together at least at the start to encourage each other. This was my first race in the Tyne Bridge Harriers vest and I felt the weight of representing the club quite heavily. I wanted to do them proud. Therefore I may have had a few more butterflies in my tummy than normal before a run.
The Mayor of North Tyneside, Linda Arkley, started the run at 10am and with Davina and I starting from near the back it took about a minute to get through the start. However we got off to a good pace, running the first mile in 10.32 mins. At the end of the second mile was the dreaded priory hill.
This photo doesn't do the hill justice really.
Really it's two hills. The first one was beaten due to me shouting at myself, gritting my teeth and going for it. With the second one I managed to get about half way up before I stopped to walk, until Davina said she could see Micky, our coach from the Harriers and we thought it would be best to run again or we'd never hear the end of it. It was great to hear Micky and Leodhais shouting encouragement.
I knew the rest of the race was flat after the priory so decided just to run as well as I could. Davina recovered from the hill a lot better than me, so she moved ahead of me, but I was still chasing her. We got to the 3 mile point and I decided not to partake in the water on offer after the sluicing of my sinuses on the last 10k I did.
We got to 5k and Davina shouted back to me that we were on for a 1hr 10 minutes 10k which made me feel great. I knew that I felt comfortable at the pace I was going at that point. There were plenty of people to encourage us on, and it felt great to have people clapping and cheering us. A little boy stuck out his hand for a high-5 and that was lovely.
At about the 4.5 mile point I started to feel the pace. I knew I had started to slow down, and Davina had pulled away a bit. I was still running a mile in 12 mins on average, but I started feeling a bit wobbly. I can't actually remember this part of the run. The next thing I can remember is between miles 5 and 6 when I had to ask 3 times for people to move out of the way while I was running and they were walking the other way towards me. The first two times I just had to say "Excuse me" to the people walking three abreast. The last time I kind of yelled "Can you get out of the way please!" in an annoyed tone as the group of four people with their dog on a longish lead tried to make the run into an obstacle course. I think my not best pleased voice got them to move pretty sharpish, but it seems rather silly that they can see people are running and decide that they are going to try and force you onto the road rather than move over a bit to let you through!
It was between the 5 and 6 mile point that I started to see Tyne Bridge Harriers who had already finished, and who were shouting their support to me, which really helped me. I was finding it hard to keep going now, and had to find something to keep me going. So I decided to focus on David Rathband and what he had to overcome to be able to run. By telling myself that I was running this last mile for him I managed to keep going. A guy in a red tracksuit ran with me for the last mile and we kept each other going which was lovely. Sometimes you need someone next to you to just spur you on.
I turned the corner onto the road to St Mary's lighthouse and was so pleased to see the 200m to go sign. I wasn't bothered about time at that point, and didn't even look at my watch. As I passed the 100m to go sign a group which included Tyne Bridge Harriers, my friend Karen and my friend Tony and his wife Shirley were yelling at me to keep going. I didn't know I had it left in my legs but managed to get a sprint going, and just beat red-tracksuit man to the finish. A shake of hands, and collecting a great goody bag, with T-shirt, energy gel, water bottle and a form for the Clive Cookson 10k in May gave me time to have a look at my Garmin which I had stopped at the line.
I nearly fell over! I had knocked 5 minutes and 37 seconds of my PB! I had finished in 1hr 14 mins and 14 seconds. It was so much better than I could have hoped for. Davina came over and grabbed me, then Karen did the same. I was completely buzzing. After grabbing water we made our way to the car park to get a lift back to the Salutation Inn, to meet a couple of friends, Misty and Bernard, who had completed the race too. I had moaned about the lack of a medal at this race, I love a medal, and Misty had made me a medal that I will cherish always and which Bernard presented me with at the pub over my cranberry and soda. It was a lovely end to a great run and one which I would highly recommend to anyone wanting a fast 10k to do.
My lovely medal, thanks Misty!
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