Race Report – A view from the sidelines

I am back!

Sadly, not back running (give me a week or so, then we’ll talk), but I wanted to write about Mr Notajogger’s amazing PB-smashing 10k performance on Sunday.

As he has mentioned, he’s been training for the last 8 weeks to try to improve his 10k time: 43 minutes 57 seconds. He followed the same schedule  that I started, but then had to abandon. Mr N is very good at following training schedules. I tend to use them in the same way that I would a recipe, adding a handful of raisins here, changing the oven temperature there. He uses them in the way that he would a recipe, to the absolute letter. As a result, he knocked 54 seconds off his PB, and I am sitting on my bum eating cakes.

It was surprisingly fun to be watching a race, rather than participating in it. I particularly enjoyed waiting at the start line, watching 350 runners shivering through the announcements, whilst dressed in a parka and boots. Despite the grey weather, there was a lovely atmosphere – it really is a friendly race and my hands ached with constant clapping. There are three laps, so from the leader’s first appearance at about 11 minutes (!), there is always someone passing who needs to be cheered on.

Dan (Mr N) looked good at the end of the first lap, bang on time to break 43 minutes, which was his goal. The second lap is the killer in this race, it’s really hard to maintain motivation and not let self-doubt creep in. He dropped off the pace a bit, but was still looking good. I gave him a few choice words of encouragement (I may have shouted) at this point, which obviously did the trick as his final lap was his fastest and he finished in 43 minutes and 3 seconds. Whoop!

What is Dan doing to celebrate this great achievement, you might ask? Is he joining me on the sofa with the cake? Not quite. He is starting a new 8 week plan to knock off those 3 seconds.