Eastleigh 10k 2013

This morning I ran the Eastleigh 10k; a prestigious event with a field of over 2500.  I haven't entered a fast road race for ages and in fact I didn't enter this one - my friend Matt offered me his place and I thought it would be a good gauge of my speed.  Back in the 90s, I was very focused on times and fast road courses - my record-keeping is not great, but I think my best was the Highworth 10k in 2005 when I ran 35:51.

It was cold this morning - a numbing 2 degrees with a light east wind.  Like everyone else, I tried to stay indoors as long as possible before the start.  I positioned myself about 8 runners deep from the start line; the gun went and off we set at a cracking pace.

In fact it was a blistering pace and it started to dawnn on me that I had set off too far up the field.  This set the tone for the whole race.  Every few metres, I was being overtaken.  Sometimes one or two and other times a whole phalanx of them - both men and ladies; some very short and some really rather old.  I kept up the pressure but I can't say I enjoyed it much as I slipped further and further down the order.  My personal racing rule - overtaking good, being overtaken bad!

I finished in a heaving mess with 37:38 on the clock - no disaster, but I know I could have done better with more intelligent pacing.  It was also my first run in a while after a rotten cold, which can't have helped.  It was a very different event to the cross-country races and events like Hursley 10k... but a great learning experience and a well organised  and marshalled event on the chilliest of days.

Here are the results (I was 139th of just over 2000) and here are the split times from the Garmin.  First km in 3:29... that was my undoing.