Running29:11 6.41 km (4:33 / km) +93m4:15 / km ahr:120 max:144 shoes: Blue Symm
12 PM
Running35:56 5.57 km (6:27 / km) ahr:124 max:160 shoes: Blue Symm
Running race 28:33 10.0 km (2:51 / km) ahr:175 max:185 shoes: White Dragon
Welsh Athletics 10,000 m in Newport. Exciting to have a race and very grateful for the opportunity.
The only goal for this race was to commit to running a fast pace to halfway and then hang on for as long as I could. I have often been quite conservative in track 10 k's, whereas I have pushed hard early in Half Marathons and (despite slowing in the second half) run quicker than I might have expected. Ieuan was in to pace ~14:15 pace to 5 km, so I figured I would stick with that and see what group was left at the end.
I got in behind Ieuan at the start and he paced to 4 km in ~11:20 (~14:10 pace). I'd have liked to shelter for a little longer, but he was a good pacer otherwise (very little surging). I took out the next two laps and then pulled aside to let Emile Cairess come through. We passed 5 km in around 14:10 (Me, Emile, Dewi and James) but Emile was running just a little faster than I wanted to go. Little gaps kept opening and I'd have to work hard to close back on. From ~5.4 - 6.0 km I took another couple of laps but when Emile took over again he opened up a gap almost immediately.
It was all solo running from this point and I couldn't quite hold onto the same pace. I rallied a bit with 1 km to go, but I couldn't quite manage enough to sneak under 28:30 (Wales Commonwealth Games standard). Still, a big step in the right direction, lots of confidence that I am training well and (hopefully) more opportunities to have a go at the time.