Stories and tips from around the world.
Westonbirt is a regular pacing slot on Carmen's calendar, but it's a place I've never visited. Due to this race being two hours from London, and slightly further from Leicester, we headed there in separate cars so I could head back home after the race. When I got there I joined the queue getting into the grassy car park, and could see Carmen several cars behind. I messaged her once I’d parked to m …
For the third year in a row, I was with Carmen at Northala Fields for the Northolt 10K. Each year I’ve been, I’ve seen changes to the set-up of the race, and this year was no exception with the race village looking better than ever with the prayer flags and a temporarily constructed stupa complete with Buddha’s all-seeing eyes. There was even a Nepalese food truck selling things such as momos, and …
We decided to do the inaugural LDN X race in Wembley. It sounded like it was going to be a fun event, but on the day, we could see things that didn't seem very well thought out.
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 volun …
Having had so few short races since 2019, I really needed to find more to do - something to keep me practicing at speed work at a time when it’s not been that fast. Rutland is a place I’ve been interested in running at before, mostly for parkrun, but wanting a fairly local 10K I felt this one would be a good choice. Since GU36, I've not really done any speed work. I've done two parkruns, which are …
Two weeks out from the Boston Marathon (in Lincolnshire), and I should really be doing a marathon-paced half marathon as part of tapering. Instead, having not done a 10K race this year, and this race being one I often do, I decided I may as well do a 10K with about 80% effort. With a decent warm-up and cool-down alongside it; maybe it'd be similar effort to a slower half. At least, that was my rea …
November 20th 2016. I ran during the torrential downpour of ‘Storm Angus’ before flying to Nepal for an adventure I would never forget. I’d been to Kathmandu, and volunteered and ran a marathon around the mountain village of Kakani and the Shivapuri national park. In the days that followed I’d travelled all over Nepal, and had seen Annapurna from the Australian base camp, and took a flight past Mo …
I haven't really run many 10Ks lately, but this was one I only added to my race calendar in the last few weeks as part of celebrating Carmen's birthday. Whilst she would be pacing 65 minutes, I’d be free to run this at whatever pace I could manage. Based on recent races, I suspected early on that would be ‘not very fast’ compared to what I used to manage.. The night before this race I’d pulled a m …
I had planned on getting in plenty of speedwork after Swansea Half Marathon, so I'd be ready for my first proper 10K race of the year, but this hadn't gone to plan. I was also in London yesterday doing a parkrun at Fulham Palace, but had deliberately kept it slow, but at any rate, I'd not had the best preparation for this 10K I'd been wanting to do for a while. It didn't matter though, this would …
This was the penultimate race I needed to do from 2020, with only the Limassol Half still to go after this. I did consider running to the race and back afterwards, but if I did that then this wouldn't really be much of a tempo session. It would have been an eighteen mile run though which would have helped. It was coplder than it would have been if it'd been at the scheduled date in September 2020, …
The first of two races for this August bank holiday weekend. They'd be my last races before the London marathon, so would hopefully be a good indicator of where I am.
My last 10K didn't go that well, but fortunately I knew I'd got a few more still booked in for the year. The downside to this next one was that it's an evening race which makes fuelling harder, but on the positive side it's one that would be in daylight, and I've PB'd on this course before so I knew it well enough. Of course there was absolutely no chance of getting a PB tonight, no matter how har …
Repeating races I've done before always feels like a way to benchmark where I currently am. It's been a long time since I first did this race, and have done it a few times over the years. It was one of my first races back after the start of the pandemic, when they started up again. For that race I did it in 39:20 - not my fastest 10K, but the fastest I'd done this course. So for this race my goal …
My first night race in a few years, and one I'd travelled a long way for.
My first 10K in over two years - a belated 10K in Leicester that should have taken place in 2020.
Starting to feel a little better from my cough and cold, I had another 10K to run for the second week in a row. Maybe this one would go better...
This was one of those races I'd entered just for fun, and was only doing it because friends were. I've not raced in Clumber Park before; but I've seen plenty of it from trips there over various summers. It's the sort of place that is good for a picnic and to relax a little. My only expectation for this race was that it'd be a little slower than other 10Ks I've done recently as I figured it'd be a …
The wettest of my races this year (so far), and potentially my only chance to get a 10K PB in 2019… if I could be bothered to try.
My second 10K of the month being used mostly as a training run ahead of next week\'s more serious 5K race. The first outing of the year for my racing shoes (didn't feel like using them for the previous ones this year).
Six days after the Greater Manchester Marathon it was time to race again... even if I was treating it as a tempo training run.
My first race of the year. The best I've done on this course, finishing 5th overall and 1st in my age category.
A 10K race I did for fun with friends, on a nice sunny day. It wasn't a bad day out, and one I'd recommend.
Another go at what was my PB race last year. I entered this year hoping I could do better, but between illness and reduced training whilst on vacation, this seemed unlikely.
A four lap race in Prestwold around a driving circuit (formerly an airfield) with 1 mile, 5K, and 10K options available. It was a race I expected to be slow, but sometimes races can be surprising.
My third time doing this 10K, but the first time I've done it without overheating or injury. It was a cold day for April, and quite wet, but fortunately the rain eased off for most of the race.
A 10K race along the Tissington Trail from Ashbourne. This was my second time doing this race, but was one I wasn't ready for.
My plan for the start of 2018 was a simple one. I’d start with the Ashbourne 10K, the Reading Half, and then finish off with my third attempt at the Greater Manchester Marathon. Like everything, plans change. I’d planned to be in London on Saturday 3rd February to visit the British Library, but had no plans on staying for anything else. When the Winter Run was advertised it reminded me that it’s a …
Just one week before this race I ran the Leicester 10K during my last few weeks of training for the Yorkshire Marathon. I’d had a slow year, mostly in the build-up to the longest races I’ve ever done, but marathon training wasn’t going too badly – even though it was greatly condensed from what I’d normally do. Even though I knew my training was so far exhausting, I wanted to try and PB at 10K. For …
So far this year the only goal for 2017 that I’ve been able to accomplish is to complete a 100km race. That is something I did at Race to the Stones once more than half the year had passed by. I still had goals to improve my 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon times. I came close to reaching sub-40 minutes at Leeds last year, so I decided if I booked a couple of 10Ks during the lead-up to my autu …
I hadn’t raced since the Nepal Marathon during the previous year, and my hope was that I could have a winter of training that would help me get to the point where I could set new personal bests for each of the distances I run. The first of the races I hoped to PB at was the Ashbourne 10, though sadly I missed a lot of runs in January and February as training didn’t go to plan for one reason or ano …
I’ve not had much luck with the couple of 10K races I’ve had this year. One of my goals for 2016 had been to go sub-40 at 10K distance – but so far I’d not achieved this. For the first of these attempts I just couldn’t keep going in the heat and for the last 5K I completely lost the pace and walked frequently. On the second of these 10K attempts I was injured and found hobbling around the course j …
One of my goals for 2016 was to manage a sub-40 minute 10K, and ideally I wanted that to be in a race. For the first (almost) half of the year I’d been training for marathons and an ultra marathon so couldn’t really do much with speedwork, but early on I did manage to get my 10K time down to 41 minutes so that’d I’d only need to find another minute or so to meet this goal. My first real chance to …
I booked this one to be my last attempt at a 10K PB in 2015 – my 16th and final race of the year. I had no idea at the time though that this one would be almost entirely off road – I’d made the silly assumption it would be on paths. I started to wonder if a PB was possible, but I decided that as long as I beat my time from Rockingham I’d be happy. On the night before the race it was cold – so cold …
When I first entered this race my plan had been to attempt a new 10K PB as after setting my current one in Lincoln earlier in the year. I did at the time think I could do better as I wasn’t running flat out at the end. Over the summer I’d had a lot of bad runs, but I still didn’t think it was out of the question as the majority of my training runs were still not that much slower than my PB. Howeve …
A year ago I did the Rothley 10K for the first time, and it was one of my first 10K races. It was however one which took place at a time when I was having issues with my knees and this race played havoc on them. I decided to enter it again this year, but again knew I wouldn’t be racing at full speed due to it only having a day’s rest since my last race. On the day of the race I prepared my race ki …
This was a race I’d wanted to do the year before, but by the time I’d decided I wanted to do it there were no available places. So, when the the entries opened for 2015 I made sure I didn’t miss out. A friend had done this race a few years previous so it was one I wanted to do also, in part so we could compare times afterwards. However, after 3 weeks of almost zero runs, and going straight into th …
Before I’d even run the London Marathon I decided I’d do the inaugural Great Birmingham 10K the week after it. It didn’t seem the best of ideas at the time. As it got closer to race day I attempted to book a train so I could take it easy before the 12noon start. The problem though was the start time changed, and I'd now need a train at a time when there weren’t any trains stopping at the local sta …
In 2014 the Lincoln 10K was my first proper race so I knew I had to try doing this race again this year to see if I'd improved at all. The downside to this though was that it's timing was the week after the Silverstone Half Marathon, another race I'd wanted to do well with. On the day of this race I should have been doing an 18 mile run for London Marathon so running a 10K race didn't really fit i …
This was a bit of a last minute decision, and it didn’t really fit in with my training, but when I saw this one was nearby I decided this would be a good way to start racing for 2015. This actually became the last run of my third week of training for the London Marathon (out of a total of 16 weeks training). The weeks of 2015 had so far been cold and was showing signs of getting colder as we got c …
Following the Leicester Marathon I had barely run for three weeks. With the exception of setting a new PB of 20:29 for running 5K most of my runs had seemed like hard work, from both the point of view of motivating myself, and the effort required. I think my loss of motivation was a combination of having just done the marathon, the sudden change in temperature outside, and the changing of the cloc …
In July I started my marathon training and by the time of this race had already got passed 10K once more, but the program I was following recommended having a 10K race at around the halfway mark for the 16 weeks of training. Fortunately the Atherstone 10K which is hosted by the Badgers running club fit in with this timing almost perfectly, and it being in Warwickshire meant it wasn’t that far to t …
This run was in support of Rainbows, a charity that provides hospice care for children and young people that have life-shortening, or life-threatening illnesses. This year the charity is celebrating it’s 20th birthday, and on the lead up to the event I was able to raise £75.00 in sponsorship for them. It being about a month after my previous race I was pretty hopeful that I would have managed to h …