I've barely done any 10K races in the last few years, so I knew it was going to be difficult, even more so with it during a heavy week of marathon training. I don’t really know what my 10K pace is right now, so it could easily be a case of setting off too fast, and then crashing and burning before the finish.

It was the first time I’d seen Wembley Stadium, and it’s the first thing you see as you leave the Wembley Park station - a long avenue leading towards it. We sorted bag drop and then followed the path to the toilets in the race village in an indoor car park.

I don’t mean to be disgusting, but if you consider that there’s no airflow to reduce the smell, they were dark inside due to no sunlight so you could barely see, and that they were positioned on a hill which made the portable toilets flushing mechanism not work right, you may get an idea of the state they were in. There’s also a sign in this area to warn runners that there’s flashing lights at the start and on the course, so could impact people who have photosensitive epilepsy. A bit late for telling them that really. Carmen also realised something else - the start being indoors meant we’d be unable to get a GPS signal at the start, so our pacing might be off.

The green wave got called forward at 08:30, and were led between the two buildings to another underground car park that was darker, so had disco lights set-up to illuminate the way. There were large water containers lit up as well around where a DJ was situated, but between the music and the sound of runners talking echoing around this enclosed space echoing, it was hard to hear what instructions were being given. At about 08:50 we were moved forward from the pen to the start line, so they could take a pre-race photograph of people crossing their arms to represent the X of LDN X. It was at least easier to hear what was being said when round by the start line.

“Whilst you’re waiting don’t forget to start your GPS”

Eh? How are we supposed to do that then? I’d managed to get a signal before going underground, but had lost it whilst we’d been held in the start pens. I heard others commenting they couldn’t get a signal, and I wasn’t surprised. We were too far from the open air to get one. The start gantry was cool though with the digital screens used for the countdown.

When the race started, it was a very short run before being outside in the bright sunshine. Very bright sunshine. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but once they had I was then able to see where I was actually running. My Garmin watch had no idea what was going on, and I’m not sure how long it took for it to figure out it could now get a signal, so I wasn’t really sure what pace I was doing. Maybe if it didn’t get a proper signal I could judge pace on time and passing kilometre markers.

Running away from the stadium, it was mostly downhill to start with, but within the first 0.4 miles (according to what my watch had registered at least) a runner in front of me tripped over a pothole, and rolled on the floor, almost taking out the runner that was close behind him. He got up, as people were asking he was okay, and just got running again. I heard a runner say, “you never want to fall over in a race, but right at the start too…”. I think I was a little more cautious of the road surface for a while after that.

It seemed we hadn’t been going for long at all before the course then veered into another indoor carpark, it weaved around a few times with hairpin bends that were frequent enough to seriously slow people down, and then went into another area of the car park where there were disco lights shining through smoke. With how much the crowd had thinned out, the dark smoky corridor almost seemed eerie. It looked like they were setting up to play some music there as well, but I was unsure for certain if that’s what they were going to do.

Once out of the car park it was then another long straight into another hairpin bend, and I was really getting fed up of this route even though I wasn’t even half way yet. A couple of runners in front of me were talking about how fed up they were of the GPS signal cutting out as they’d done that first bit faster than intended as they were unsure how fast they were going.

"We ran that section too fast"

"Yeah, it's the GPS, just can't get a signal"

I could understand what they meant; I'd had a signal for a while when the route had opened up a bit, and had tried to maintain pace after that, but after losing the signal again in the car park of many twists and turns, who knows… I'd have to wait for a kilometre sign to be sure.

After the out and back to the hairpin bend, I saw one runner in front of me filming with a selfie stick, but then waved it onto the side where there was oncoming runners, and swept it along the floor - it was very lucky nobody changed direction too quickly and got tripped by it. Fortunately I think most of them could clearly see it, so I think it was actually okay - but I carried on watching anyway as I realised I was likely to see a very familiar face soon. When going back up the hill we’d run down at the start, I then saw Carmen in the pink wave on the other side of the road so I waved as we passed each other.

Shortly after that there was yet another hill, and on that one I took it wide to try and overtake, but in doing so I hadn’t spotted that there was a pothole around a drain and stumbled over that. I didn't fall luckily, and after I walked for a few steps and shook my legs off, I got running again until the halfway timing mat. I realised at this point that I’d not noticed many kilometre markers so assuming the mat was halfway, this was one of the few times I could genuinely gauge my pace. I assumed I just hadn't spotted them after the 1km one though.

There were many more out and backs with hairpin bends, with one of the last of these passing Wembley station. It was a very uninspiring route, which usually isn't so bad if it wasn't for out and backs. I’d walked a few more times by this point as I didn’t see the point in trying too hard with how this had been going, and figured if I was going to be getting slowed down continuously I was better off saving my legs for my training run tomorrow. I was so fed up of these hairpin bends, and I'd got a feeling there'd be more yet. One or two would have been fine I guess, but eight was too many. It then winds a little more around where the stadium is, along Lioness Way, and then another out and back - there was confetti in the air around this bit, which shone in the air as it fell. I thought I could hear a drum being played as well. Sometimes the beat of a drum can help to find a more consistent rhythm running as well.

After that out and back I ran back towards the front of the station, and then it goes around the corner and past the baggage drop we’d used earlier, and then through the indoor car parks we’d started in. As I entered the second car park I couldn’t see where I was going to start with as my reaction lenses in my glasses hadn’t changed quick enough for how dark it was inside. I guess it did kind of feel cool running indoors through a race, like those strange racing dreams where you think a race is going through a shopping mall or similar. This was of course very real, and at least it wasn't a winding route like the last car park.

Out on the other side, my eyes weren’t too shocked by the sunlight as they had been at the start of the race, and soon the nine kilometre marker came around whilst on the other side of the road were people who had only just started. The two lanes then split away, so those of us heading towards the finish then approach the avenue with the stadium on, but run away from it to a hairpin bend (again!) for the final straight towards the finish, with a backdrop of Wembley stadium. Unfortunately there is a slight chicane about 100 metres from the finish, so you do still have to be careful.

I crossed the finish line in 42:20, and was surprised I’d done a lot better than I thought after I’d gotten fed up of racing. This was position 362 out of 4,665 finishers. Maybe despite not being bothered to really try for most of it, somehow I hadn't done too badly. At the finish was a medal, and a can of water, though I gather there was some vitamin thing as well, but I never saw it - not that I'd have wanted it anyway. Apparently OneAsics members could get a personalised t-shirt at the finish. I hadn't realised that was a thing until I'd gone home, and that did explain what the queue was for - I thought it was just many people being eager to buy an event t-shirt for some reason. What makes this worse though is that when we left there around 10:20, we heard event staff saying that the queue was closed as they'd sold out. Some people had then left, and later found that people had still been able to collect t-shirts a few hours later but had missed out due to what had been said.

I found a spot to watch out for Carmen, and after seeing her run past, oblivious to me being there, I headed over to a second spot where I'd be able to get a photograph of her running with Wembley Stadium in the background. I then met up with her at the finish, and we'd heard there was an after party in Boxpark, but couldn't really see anything obvious, so headed back to the tube station.

I wouldn't recommend this race, or do it again myself. It's just too frustrating how often it forces you to slow down. From the information available, and the announcements, it sounded like it was meant to feel more like a party than a race, and I think things like running in the dark car park were there to get atmospheric running photos. So if that's what you're after, then you might enjoy this one. If you want to race, then maybe not.