Little Miss Sunshine

The Clayton 10k Medal

The latest in my NSRRA events was the Clayton 10k on Wednesday 15th May - it was the first time I'd taken part in an evening race for a while and it coincided with a day of meetings in London... it was going to be a long day and it started with torrential rain and a soaking, as I made my way to the station. In fact, I almost missed my train as I had to detour back along Leek Road to avoid being lost in a very large and deep puddle. Travelling south, the thought of a 10k race later in the evening did not seem a particularly appealing prospect. However, I was encouraged by a new 5km PB achieved at South Manchester parkrun on the previous Saturday - 29 seconds faster than my best ever time at Hanley parkrun but there were no hills!

Regular updates throughout the day confirmed the rain was continuing unabated and then at about 4 o'clock, just as I was boarding the train to return to Stoke, the first sign of improvement in the weather came through in two texts from home - broken clouds, skies clearing, rain easing. As I passed through Milton Keynes, the sun came out. Perhaps it wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Back in Stoke at just before 5.30pm, Mr T met me at the station (carrying my kit - bless him) and we headed over to the race HQ at Our Lady and St Werburgh's Catholic Primary School in Clayton - in case you're interested, St Werburgh was a 7th Century nun who was born and died in Staffordshire and is now the patron saint of Chester (so says the Catholic Encyclopedia anyway).

A quick change from work clothes into running gear and it was time to prepare for the race - I had a drink of water and a mini-twix (complements of Virgin Trains), said hello to lots of running friends  and shuffled over to the start area outside the Co-op on Windermere Road. I may not have had an abundance of energy but at least the sun was shining - Little Miss Sunshine was ready to run!

There were a lot of runners crammed into a relatively small space and it only got worse as the race was underway. We had to turn off the road onto a very narrow pavement and then another right turn before there was room to breathe - the first 100metres was a stop-start shuffle that didn't give me the best start to my run, although I did receive an encouraging cheer from Mr T and cousin Sonia.

On the First Lap!

I tried a little bit too hard for the rest of the first kilometre to make up for the time lost at the start, overtaking several runners in the process (including a couple of Ws that I recognised) but using a lot of energy too. The course consisted of two laps on a undulating route - the first km was mostly downhill, followed by an uphill slog for the next two km, then a bit of downhill, more uphill and then downhill again to the halfway- and then you do it all over again.

I completed the first km in under 5 minutes and I pushed on up the hills. I received some encouraging cheers from Potters Trotters star cheerleader Justine mid way through the first lap and Andy Worsey was at about the 4km mark. The strangest aspect of the first lap though was the sight of Bryn Holmes flying past after about 2km. His tweet say it all: "sorry about confusing you all with my turn up late and try to overtake everyone strategy"! The fact that the roads were open was also occasionally disconcerting - most drivers gave the runners plenty of space but I was always aware of the traffic.

I reached 5km, with more cheers from Mr T and Sonia, in just over 25 minutes. And so to lap 2. I was beginning to tire and particularly struggled from 6km to 7km (my slowest km of the run at 5:27) - although a big shout out from two more spectating Potters Trotters helped me out. The sun kept putting in an appearance too - it definitely almost felt warm. I recovered some energy on the next downhill section and managed a slightly faster km (5:05), but was no longer confident of beating my 10k PB (set at the Newcastle 10k in April). More, if slightly erroneous, encouragement from Andy Worsey and I was into the last km.

Little Miss Sunshine!

Smiling, just about, for a photo for Justine and then it was head down to the finish... I checked my watch just once more and saw the clock tick over past 50 minutes. There was a still a chance of a PB, as the finish line was in sight, but I was really struggling and wasn't sure I had too much left for a sprint finish.

It was back on to the narrow pavement where we had struggled at the start and then the race was over - I was not entirely sure when I actually crossed the official finish line but I was presented with a medal and Mr T and Sonia were there to congratulate me - unofficially, a new PB and possibly even first of the Ws too. My official time of 51.11 confirmed the PB, finishing in 165th place out of 241 runners.

Good result, but I didn't feel great and I think a marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k at race pace in two and half weeks have finally taken their toll. I've got very tired legs now and I think a rest is required - for at least a few days anyway. After cheering home the Potters Trotters and catching up on a few race stories, it was time to go home for a celebratory Chinese takeaway.

Happy Running

Liz T.