I won!

7M - 10K race - South London Harriers' Near as dammit 10K
6.2M (hilly!) at 5.49min/M - 00:35:49; 1st position
0.8M warm up and warm down

I won my first EVER distance race! OK, so it wasn't that big a field, but it was so fun. I won a fair bit over 800m and 1500m when I was at school, but never won at cross-country and had previously managed a best of 2nd (three times) since my running renaissance.

I nearly missed the race too. I had decided on the race just to make myself run hard on my scheduled 'tempo' run - where I'm supposed to run at or just above my aerobic (so called 'lactate') threshold for about 5 miles. I finished work at 6 and had to get down to Coulsdon near Croydon by 7.30. I got to Coulsdon at 7.15, ran to the race headquarters, paid my entry fee, picked up my number and then ran the half mile to the start. I arrived with 10 seconds to spare...

It was a hilly and not very frequently marked course. Luckily one of the local guys was running with me and he very sportingly would warn me where we needed to turn. It was a bit hard to judge the pace because of the hilliness and the fact I had no clue where we were going next. But that all added to the fun and I just paced it according to the feel of my legs. I was on my own from about 4 miles and pushed on a bit. Legs were fine on the jog back to race headquarters. Shouldn't be too stiff tomorrow. I'm so glad I decided to go. It was really friendly race.