Crystal Palace 10k - 4th March 2012

So, event 1 of the 100 miles for the NRAS was the Crystal Palace 10k. Unfortunately the build up to the event was not good, with me being ill for a couple of weeks before hand. Having not been able to do the level of training I knew I needed to do, and with the Sports Relief 6 mile and the Olympic Park 5 mile runs in the next couple of weeks, I knew I had to be sensible and not do anything to risk any sort of injury.

The event was great - not an easy course by any means, but a really well organised event by Wrap Up and Run for Age UK. It was a cold wet day, and after a warm up from a tv style Mr Motivator (I can never do these - if I do - Im too tired to run - thats part of the problem of not really being very fit and being quite overweight!), we were then given a motivational speach by the ex tv celeb who played Tony Stamp from the Bill.

The course was two 5k laps starting in the Crystal Palace athletics track and after running past the track on the first lap, the final 300 metres was back round the track to the finish line. It had some lovely flat section, but these were punctuated with some very short sharp steep hills, which I decided I would walk given the lack of training. As a result it was a very slow time, with some very fast runners! I was overtaken at about the 3k mark by the leader (at the 8k mark!!!) I tried to trip him up but failed miserably.

Eventually managed to finish the race with a time of 1 hr 23 finishing (NOT LAST) in 636th place. No medal for this event, but quite a nice t-shirt which came in very handy on my holidays a few weeks later.

If you want a bit of a laugh, this is the link to the pictures on the day : http://sportcam.net/CompetitorImage.aspx?ID=507&General=No If this doesnt work, then the sportcam website is where you will find them and I was number 507.

Finally heres the ups and downs of the day - and that was it 6.2 miles completed 93.8 to go!!!
http://www.adidas.com/us/micoach/WorkoutDetails.aspx?WID=169b6c67-ee71-4a4c-88ca-b7cb24df5d1c