Quick results for this race below.
Pos Num M Cat CatPos Pace per Km/Mile Time
203 238 181 M (097/182) 04.16/06.51 42:36
Well I was looking forward to this race as the Salford 10k is a fast course ready made for a PB. I ran it in 2005 (my first ever 10K) and recorded a time of 48:14. I was expecting to beat this time, but I didn't think that I'd set a new PB as my training had been more geared toward the London Marathon.
On turning up at the venue, I was impressed at how much it had changed since 2005. Now there is a wonderful purpose built sports venue with footy and hockey astro turf pitches and a great little sports centre. Salford has obviously been investing a bit of money in the area. The other thing of note was that there was a really strong headwind down the long straight. Having met up with a few of the Stockport Harriers, they were pessimistic about setting a PB with this wind as it was strong!
The course route is shown below and is two laps of the road network.
The start was on time and there was about 500 so it was reasonsably busy for the first 3kms or so. The headwind really made itself felt as we crossed the river leading to the long straight section, and it was so strong that it reduced my speed to just above walking! I've never experienced anything like it in a city, up on a mountain yes, but in the city!?!?! Thankfully the bridge was a short section, and after that the houses just took the edge off wind so it was just a long strength sapping straight with the wind in your face. Another reminder of why headwind can be worse than hills!
As I passed the halfway mark my time was 20:26, which was a little faster than I'd been hoping for. At this point though it became a lot harder to maintain the speed and I noticed my bodies composure slipping which makes your running style suffer and become less efficient. I managed to pull it together during the back straight but by then my core muscles were spent and as I rounded the corner to face the windy bridge I knew I was in trouble.
During the last long straight a large group of people overtook me and I then threw everything I had to overtake them. Just as the finish line was in sight, I started feeling really bad inside and checked my heart rate which was dangerously high at 199bpm (for men, the simple maximum heart rate formula is 220bpm minus your age). I had to slow down, and the last 10 metres were slightly off pace. A graph of it all is below.
The blue line is pace (minutes per kilometer i.e. the lower the better) and you can see the difference the long straight made (3.5K to 6K) after which I wasn't able to recover the consistency.
Overall, it was a great race, and I'm happy with the time. Many of the Stockport Harriers managed PB's despite the wind, so some great performances out there. Gareth Raven from Sale Harriers won the race with an incredible time of 31:07, and the fastest Stockport Harrier time was recorded by Mike Shaw with 34:45. I hope to be back at this race next year, to try and set a new PB.
Cheers
Andy
No comments:
Post a Comment