Grimace And Bear It

Today the Sinfin Classic 10k which is organised by Sinfin Running Club but rather confusingly isn’t held anywhere near Sinfin. Instead it’s at Elvaston Castle, which is a nice location but I think the race needs a better name.

We arrive early and join a rather long queue to collect out numbers. That hold up apart, it’s a well organised race, with plenty of friendly, encouraging marshals and an almost totally flat course. So in a way there’s PB potential here and I did dip just under 40 minutes here three years ago, which was a PB at the time.

I must have closed my eyes and my mind three years ago because this is really not my sort of race at all. I've become a nice smooth tarmac sort of person. Today we start off with speed bumps and smattering of pot holes to negotiate. Then we’re on to grit paths (not my favourite) for most of the rest of the route with a small respite to take us over some cobbles in the castle courtyard. It’s a new course this year and if I’d have changed the course, the first thing to have gone would have been the cobbles but perhaps that’s just me. I grimace and bear it.

I had considered that this might be the ‘one’ that I’ve been in training for but in the end I decide to designate this as another ‘training run’. I'll be awesome when I get to the event I’ve actually been training for.

They take us up along the river and up through the new road system that has been laid down for the new industrial park that doesn't have any industry on it. I notice they’ve started building even more roads on this land. I have no idea why and they probably haven’t either.

I go for a negative split and start with a 4:06km rather than the usual suicidal 3:40km. Doesn’t work though. I still get slower. I run the first half in 20:57 and the second half in 21:49. The second half is only as quick as that because I get a panic on that I’m not going to break 43 minutes. I do, by 14 seconds.

Just out of interest my splits three years ago were 19:38 and 20:20. Which was quicker but is another positive split.

Whilst I’m three minutes slower than three years ago, L is a similar amount faster but she’s not happy with her run either. She is happy though with the green t-shirt, well happier than me. Green is not really my colour, although granted it’s a vast improvement on the red long sleeved one of three years ago.

My parents have come to support so we all go for lunch at the New Inn, Shardlow and then afterwards head home to relax, chill out and nod off.

I recover enough later to train MD and share a bottle of wine with L.

(Sunday 5th June)