I was excited about running in my favourite city and 10km is not too daunting for a bank holiday Monday.
I was well behaved the night before (unlike in Los Angeles) eating LOTS of pasta and bread (with a quarter of a cheesecake for afters.) A little indulgent I feel but at least I was going to run (a percentage of) it off in the morning.
I arrived at Green Park (so called because the King once gave a flower to a lady in waiting whilst walking in the park so the Queen promptly had all flowers removed from the park) and had to pick up my number as it didn't arrive in the post. Quite a lengthy queue but it moved pretty quickly and it gave me a chance to finish my breakfast :-)
I was in the first start wave so made my way down to the pens. We were starting the race on The Mall with our backdrop being Buckingham Palace. A stunning place to line up. Soon enough the pen was filled up and the familiar feeling of body heat surrounded me.
The elites made their way to the start line and at 10am we were off. Down The Mall and through Trafalgar Square. Along The Strand through The Aldwych and around Holborn where I used to work when I very first moved to London in 2000. Lovely memories. On through The City and St Paul's I was thoroughly enjoying every kilometer that passed and the sights were certainly enjoyable to see.
Soon we were back on The Strand and were passing (in the opposite direction) those from subsequent start waves completing their first kilometer.
The last KM is always a tough one as the end feels so close but yet it's really hard to up the pace. I had forgotten to wear my watch so I had no idea how well I was doing so just kept up as best I could and crossed the line in front of Buckingham Palace with Prince Harry waving to me from the balcony. OK so that last bit is a lie but it's true to say that is where the race finished.
I heard the race commentator saying that we were approaching 37 minutes on the clock which I was happy with. The clock was still showing 36m 50s when I went across meaning that I was inside the 36m mark as I set off a little after the gun start time. My official result was:
Overall place: 301
Gender place: 266
10KM time: 36 minutes 46 seconds
5KM split time: 18 minutes 15 seconds
Not a bad result at all out of 12,000 runners and a very elite field in front of me! Jo Pavey retaining her title after having been up all night ill the night before baffles me. She is amazing and I love chasing her in races :-)
So I was actually only 20 seconds off a PB which if I had worn my watch maybe I would have been able to make up? Let's see at the next 10KM in a few months time.
Post race I enjoyed a lovely walk through this fabulous city, some retail therapy (a must on a bank holiday) and a swim in the Olympic Pool. Sadly no trace of the Team GB diving team at the pool though. Maybe one day my stalking will pay off eh?
Start line featuring Ms. Pavey:
Waiting for the pen to fill up:
Looking back to a rather marvellous house:
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