Nike Women's 10km - London

I ran the Nike Women's 10km race in Victoria Park today! I went with a crew called Yarn in the City, and got a personal best of 1 hour 8 minutes for the time.

Nike Women's 10km in London

I haven't been posting many of my runs recently because they keep ending up being shorter than I intend, and there is something awful about that. I did do a few before today, and I'm sort of glad I kept it a bit easy, as I learned all about "race mentality" today.

Just a bit about 'before' the race - I signed up online, and had to go to Nike Town in Central London to pick up my race-pack, which contained my t-shirt, time tracker, run bracelet, instructions and guest ticket for one person to get into the race village. I didn't actually manage to get there, and John went instead - I could have picked it up on the day, but I didn't realise that was an option, plus I wanted to be ready. This was great, and made me feel a lot more relaxed about the race.

Lots of orange t-shirts at the Nike Women's 10km start line.

The t-shirt was what I can only describe as a 'puke peach' colour. I can only assume it was cheaper to make 10,000 race shirts in this fabric colour because few people would buy it. My colour taste aside, I now have a lot of affection for the shirt...it was quite something seeing so many people all around London sticking out like sore thumbs!

Nike Women's 10km

It was a fair walk to get to the race village, surrounded by the orange t-shirts and trying to figure out where to go for bag-drop, race start, toilets...I managed to figure it out, and was on my own at this point. Probably a good thing as I was being a little fussy about what I did, and while I'm happy to do that in my own time, other people would have found it annoying...

I started in the 'green' pen, which is basically the people expected to run the race in about one hour, or just under. I estimated my pace when I signed up (because at the time I still couldn't run 5km, let alone double that...) and was really worried that I was in a too-fast category! I can't run with less than 500ml of water if I'm doing more than 8km, and all my training runs are done with equipment as I don't have handy water stations dotted around London, so I didn't want to mix things up too much and change it around. I had some of my SiS solution in water, and was using a hydration pack John bought me with a 2l bladder in it.

We all assembled in our starting areas at 10:30am, and the event was definitely jamming along. They had some funky music playing, hot men on podiums showing us what moves to do to get warmed up(!) and it was generally very high-energy. Ellie Goulding was meant to be running, but she injured herself recently and couldn't - so instead, she did the count-down.

We got to "go", totally psyched and ready to go after nearly 15 minutes of motivational chat...and then had to wait for five minutes before we could actually walk to the start line, because there were so many people! I was with Alli, Rachel and Helen, and although I was trying to talk myself down, I couldn't help running fairly fast. The first km was done in 6m19s, while my average hovered at around 7minutes per km...ouch!

The Yarn in the City crew - Helen, Alli, me, Rachel (source)

I managed to get myself into a rhythm and just run after about 2km. I found it really disconcerting being in a crowd. Every run I've done since the age of 13 (when I qualified for a 1500metre race at Sports Day, which I then didn't run because I had a violin exam) has been on my own, just me and the road/treadmill and my music - so being with 9,999 other people who were running was a completely new and unimagined experience.

Alli and Rachel disappeared at 3km, and apart from keeping an eye out for anyone I knew in the crowd, I managed to get my head down and pay attention to my run rather than freak out about the people from that point on. I got lapped at around 4.5km by the winner, who is a runner with Team GB...she was amazing, and I noticed her because she had such an amazing figure... Being overtaken by people all the time was a bit disconcerting - no matter how much I tried to switch off the inner voice telling me it wasn't a race, I did feel like I was 'losing' a bit...I don't know how to change that, other than to do more events...

#werunlondon

There were periodic water and snack stations (big slices of orange), as well as loads of motivational and inspirational signage, and plenty of loos. The crowds were really supportive, and the course was nice and simple - flat, two laps of a really well marked area and stewards everywhere. I unfortunately saw a few accidents - one person behind me tripped and fell over, another lady collapsed and was being attended to by paramedics as I ran past, someone else was standing on the side of the course looking extremely upset and sore. The support for these people was also amazing, the crowds were attentive and it was generally a lovely atmosphere.

I got steadily slower, and really struggled between 7km and 8km, which I always find difficult! I was really pleased to get to the finish line. The day was heating up, I had drunk all my energy drink, and those last 600m felt like the rest of the race combined! There were big signs saying "600m to go", "400m to go" and I was really ready to just be done. It turns out that 200m is a really long way when you're tired!

I was so happy to cross the finish line. We were all offered bananas and water, and a little way further along the walk back to the race village, we were given tote bags with a little make-up box, popcorn, a nutty butter snack and a voucher for champagne. As you walked into the race village, you were given a necklace, an exclusive design (but it broke within fifteen minutes of me putting it on, which was sad and a mark of quality, not any rough treatment - I was just sitting still watching JURASSIC WORLD!!!).

We all collected a glass of champagne and met up with our partners. John came to see me and revel in my glory a little!

As I keep saying - if every 10km ended with a glass of bubbly
I would be doing a lot more of them!

It felt like it wasn't a huge deal before I ran, because my ultimate goal at the moment is the half-marathon. I was so nervous this morning, though, and the feeling of accomplishment from doing the race as a social exercise was fantastic. I can see why people get addicted to it - and I will not be stopping at the Great North Run, that's for sure.

We went out for a big roast dinner and I allowed myself a beer...now I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep before the last week of preparation before we leave for Australia in a month...

Much love,

Corrie xx