This weekend should really have been my longest run before tapering for the Larnaca Marathon, but instead I was back at Northala Fields for the Northolt 10K for the second year in a row. Yesterday had been an easy parkrun followed by the rest of the day in Tunbridge Wells for a wedding with very little sleep; so maybe not the best race day preparation.

We headed to Northala Fields early, and volunteered at the junior parkrun. People were already setting up for the race. I helped with setting up a gazebo at the finish so the children finishing it would have somewhere to wait for their adults. Then, as competitors arrived they started to get in the way of the parkrun, so my job as Marshall was to keep them away. Eventually it got to the point where it was difficult to keep them back, but then it was over. Carmen headed over to the volunteers tent to sort out the pacers for the race.

The normal toilets at Northala Fields were out of commission, and Ealing Council had replaced them a few weeks ago with portable loos that hadn’t been maintained very well. Despite this, there were queues for them already. I hoped they didn’t blame the race organisers for their state, as this wasn’t on them.

It was then time to think about heading to the race start. It seemed about time I tried to get some decent speed training in, even if it’s a bit late in the training cycle to do it. Not much has gone to plan for this training cycle actually, but that’s a story for another day. Today, I just wanted to finish as close to the 40 minute pacer as I could manage. How close that would be, I had no idea.

I followed the march of people led by someone playing the bag pipes around to the start, and then got as close to the 40 minute pacer as I could manage. The front was quite busy so thought it likely this race was now getting quite a good number of faster runners. Not long after starting though I realised a few people had been overly ambitious with where they’d placed themselves in the start pen. I decided to run on the grass to overtake, still going at a slightly slower pace than I’d have liked, but usually I’d expect a slow start from races anyway. Around the back of the hills there is a narrow section that made overtaking difficult due to the drop into the car park at the side of the path there, but it just needed a bit of patience from me and anyone wanting to overtake them. Shortly after the path opened up, and could overtake, and by the time I was passed the hills and back on tarmac I was free to run at whatever pace I felt was right.

The course leads around to the storage shed and then onto the path to Rectory Park. I was certain that I’d managed to do the first two laps of Rectory Park without issue at this point, but you never know how things are going to change. Despite it being the end of October, I was racing in shorts and tee, and near the courts in Rectory Park I was a little cool, but by the time I got past them I was already start to warm up. It was clearly going to be a warm day. I could see the lead cyclist and the front of the race on the other side of the park already. It was going to be a quick race for them!

As I got close to the trees and the section that was muddy last year, I felt like my breathing was completely off, and I walked to catch my breath for a few seconds before continuing on and heading towards the start of the second lap of Rectory Park. On one of the trees between the exit and entrance to the park I noticed an orange ribbon on a tree, bringing back memories of GU36 in Guernsey.

On this next lap of the park I started to pass other runners, and passed at least three of the pacers: 80, 75, and 70. I never saw the tail walker though as I started that second lap before they’d reached Rectory Park.

I ran a good portion of this second lap, even though it felt warmer than the first one. There were marshals dancing to music near the courts, and this was helping a lot of people with motivation.

As I got close to the trees again I walked briefly, but then got running again, and refused to walk again before the finish. I sped up along the final straight so that I was sprinting as I reached the finish line.

I finished in position 27 of 330, with a time of42:49. It was faster than last years race at least, but was still far too slow for me. A representative of the Nepal Olympic committee was at the finish to shake people’s hands, and then after that you’re handed a medal, and a goodie bag. Inside the bag was a pin badge of the Nepal flag, a pen, a snickers bar, a banana, and some water. I saw and ate the snickers almost immediately, and then walked around to a place where I’d be able to cheer Carmen on from.