Rockingham 10 mile or how not to run a race! – Race Report by Vir Silio
My husband booked this race as a preparation for a half marathon consisted of 4 laps, so a 3 laps 10 miler made sense. I checked the map before the race and least to say I was worried because it was very complicated.
It was very windy. The race started at 13:00 (quite tricky for me as I can’t have food before a race), there were a briefing at 12:45 we didn’t heard a word…
As we started, Simon and Chris flew away from me, and I paced myself as I was thinking it was a sensible speed (I was wrong). After the first meters a lady appeared and used me as a pacer/wind stopper all the time, I tried to change positions to have some relay as wind shelter but she was a very competitive lady and kept pushing me (elbow to elbow) all the time. She was listening music, not my type I have to say. Jos tried to stay with me but she impeded it. I got crazy and accelerated trying to have some space, but she was sticked to me. I couldn’t see Jose in quite a long time so I assumed he was that Massey guy in the front… it wasn’t him. At that point, husband (more sensible than me) realized we were running to fast (under 20min the first 5k) so he went down to 4:10ish, the pace I though I was running…
It was a nightmare of turnings and laps and I got very confused, I don’t know why, I thought we were already in the 3rd lap and I took the turn to the finish line. My twin at that point realized I was being stupid, but chose not to say a word. I crossed the finish line and stopped the watch, and nothing made sense, neither the time or the distance. I asked the marshal if I could go back to the race, he stared at me as I was insane, and I thought about giving up…but Jos came to the rescue and told me to go back and finish. I joined him feeling very stupid and sad, and we chatted a bit and I felt a little better so I can push a little more. At that point I didn’t know what was my time as I have stopped my watch…
We finished quite closed (Jos beats me =D) and I had to look for the race director and explain my mistake. Thank god it was easy to fix and I saw I was second lady, first V35!!!! and also PB at 10 miles.
I congratulated the first one, and (although still feeling utterly stupid) I realized I did a PB at 5k (19:40) and at 10k (40:02). So definitely something good came from this race…I can push much more that I think, I just have to get crazy more often (without getting lost please).
PS: You may wonder why I didn’t check my expensive watch before…I can’t read properly the numbers, and most of the times I get the numbers wrong as I’m dyslexic. I just use the watch to analysis the data afterwards.
