Worcester 10k, or Happy Birthday To Me

[nanila]

Pre-race appalled face.

On Sunday morning, as an early birthday present to myself (it's tomorrow), I ran the Worcester 10k. This may sound like a weird thing to give yourself as a birthday present, but I signed up in March as a "get fit enough to do this and you will feel good about yourself on your birthday" sort of thing. Despite many doubts - especially the preceding Saturday night - I'm happy to report that this worked out as planned.

Since we have two children under the age of three, getting up early enough for the race wasn't a problem. However, getting to Worcester turned out to be a bit of a 'mare. The drive down was fine. (We would have loved to have taken public transport but the Sunday train service from our little town of BFN is almost nonexistent and doesn't start until after 10 AM.) Most of the centre of town was blocked off because the race goes down the high street for a stretch, so finding an accessible car park was difficult. I ended up jumping out of the car at an intersection, after a small barney with the bloke, so that I could get to the race start in time. Annoyingly, it turned out that he was right to encourage me to get out and walk because it took him 45 minutes to park. I was as gracious about this as might be expected. :P

I trotted off to the start line and placed myself in the "55 mins to 1 hr 15 mins" corral after passing some extremely fit-looking people warming up. One of them might have been Jo Pavey, who won the women's race, but it was so foggy I couldn't say for certain. It was very cold and I was grateful for my fancy hooded long-sleeved running top with the thumb holes. I tried not to hack up my lungs onto the other runners milling about. Eventually I noticed that nearly everyone was wearing their bib number (with integrated chip timer) on the front. I'd carefully safety-pinned mine to my back. After asking around, I discovered that the instructions had actually specified that the number should be on the front. Er. Oops.

Being so far back, I didn't actually cross the start line until over a minute after the starting gun went. I had decided beforehand that I would not worry about my time and instead try to keep running (or jogging) for the entire race. I run 5k quite regularly and I know I can do it in 31 minutes without killing myself. This was running 5k...and then immediately running a second 5k. As the crowd thinned out, I slotted myself behind a runner who'd activated her phone app to speak her pace aloud, so I knew I was going at a maintainable speed, e.g. slower than I would for a 5k.

As I trotted past the 1k marker, thanking race marshals and cheering people as I went, I suddenly realised something unexpected was happening. I was having fun. Between the 2k and 3k markers, I high-fived a number of kids with their hands out, and also kissed the bloke and the babies, who were waiting near a traffic signal to cheer me. I exchanged desultory remarks with other runners.

Approaching the 5k marker, the fog began to lift and I enjoyed the spectacular view over the river. I also learnt from my pace-setter's app that I'd taken 36 minutes to run the first 5k. I still had plenty of gas in the tank, to my surprise and pleasure, so I decided to speed up a tiny bit. I passed her.

At 7.5k, I sped up a tiny bit more. At 8k, a little bit more. Lots of cheering, thanking the marshals, enjoying views from bridges and high fives along the way. Finally, at 800 metres from the finish, I saw a chap slow down to a walk. I trotted up next to him and said, "Come on! Run with me! We're almost there, you can do it." He smiled and said, "Right, I'm coming," and started up again slowly. We ran together briefly, and then I waved at him, wished him luck and sped up again.

The bloke and the babies had managed to make their way to a spot within 200 metres of the line, so I got a second big cheer from my fan club to spur me on to [the closest thing I could manage to] a sprint finish. My chip time was 1:07:20, putting me near, but not at, the bottom of the pile.

So yeah, I was really slow, but hey, I was ill and I had a baby nine months ago, and most importantly I enjoyed myself immensely. I'm counting this one as a win.


Me with my medal right after the race.

(PSA: Neither Google Photos nor LJ's scrapbook are playing nice with DW. For the moment, if you want to see the photos, please go to the LJ crosspost as that's the only place they seem to be showing up. Sod it, I've reverted to using Flickr. It should be visible everywhere now.)

Comments

[ilanarama]

Congratulations! So much fun to pass people and finish strong, isn't it?

Running 2x a distance will be slower than 2x running a distance; you can get a good estimate of how fast you will run a longer race by plugging your time from a shorter race into this calculator and selecting 'Equivalent'. (Except for marathons, which tend to be slower than the calculated result.)

I don't see the photos - you must have them set to friends only. But I'm sure you look happy!

[redsixwing]

You ran a 10K? You are amazing. \o/

I'm glad you had fun!

[cxcvi]

Definitely win-worthy. and a decent estimate as well.

That you took the first 5k easy (compared to your usual 5k pace) probably made the second half easier. I should probably remember this sort of thing when walking to the bus stop, but I never do...

And yes, was wondering why photos weren't working.

But yay 10K?

[niqaeli]

LJ cross-post isn't showing the photos for me either? It has the same links, as far as I can tell, to the Google Photos, though, rather than having them natively on LJ's scrapbook?

But regardless, hurrah for having fun! That is absolutely, bar none, the most important part of anything like this, as far as I am concerned. :)

[omnipotent]

Happy birthday!

Neither site is loading photos for me, so I shall simply be patient :3

That must feel so good to have completed the 10k! You must be so proud of yourself! Awesome! That's cute that the bloke & babies were there to cheer you on, too. The B&B gallery, haha, like a peanut gallery but way better!

That was so cool of you to encourage the other runner.

I'm glad this was a fun and positive experience for you! Do you think you might make it an annual personal event for yourself?

[angrboda]

Well done! \o/ I have never managed more than 5K and even that was a struggle for me. I only got through C25K by having a reward waiting for me at the end of the program, my beloved kenwood major kitchen machine (aka The Major). I had told Husband that if I couldn't get through the program he was forbid me to buy it. 10K seems like an insurmountable hurdle to me. Go, you! :D *cheers* Oh, also, happy birthday. :)

Can't see the photos on LJ either this morning, but I've seen this happen with one of your posts before and the next day they would show up fine, so I'll just be keeping an eye out for it later. :)

[nadriel]

And now - happy birthday!

[purplecat]

Congratulations!! I'm glad you enjoyed it!!!

Adding my voice to those who can't see the photos on either platform.

[davidgillon]

Congratulations.

And Happy Birthday!

[sfred]

Happy birthday! And go you!

[alwayswondered]

WELL DONE! [party popper emoji] ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARGH can't believe I forgot that.

I think you are one of the few people who's ever made running a 10K sound like a glorious experience. :P I'm still creeping through the C25K; maybe now that I've bought my treadmill I'll actually finish it…

(I was just thinking randomly the other day about your Spartan Race dressed as Princess Leia.)

[lurkingcat]

That's awesome!

(And Happy Birthday!)

[antisoppist]

Wow! And happy birthday!

[azurelunatic]

Happy birthday and congratulations!

[blnchflr]

Yaaay, *cheers*! I'm very impressed with you being able to speed up after the first 5K!

Also, a race as a birthday present makes perfect sense :)

[coughingbear]

Happy birthday and congratulations!

[whereisirisnow]

Go you!
And happy birthday!

[pulchritude]

Congrats! :)

[ayebydan]

well done you!

[weaverbird]

Yay! Congratulations! You rock.

[wordweaverlynn]

Happy birthday!

[duccio]

Winnah!

[kate]

Congrats, this is awesome! Also, happy belated birthday!

[calissa]

Congratulations! And happy birthday! That is quite a way to celebrate.

(There is a card in the mail. I hope it arrives safely!)

[askygoneonfire]

Pre-race face looks a tiny bit like trying-but-not-quite-suppressing-laughter :-)

Well done you! Completing any sort of run is totally mind boggling to me - full of impressed and so delighted for you that you achieved your aim and enjoyed it so much too! Great to read