Top of the Rankings

I have to get this race report in promptly, because I am officially top of the UK Athletics 10K rankings for my age group. It won't have escaped your notice that 2014 is only three days old and there are not many track or road events in winter. However, the number will more than double today, and I expect to lose the top spot. Nice to be there, though, even if it is just for one day.

The ABRaS Mina 10K race is run three times a year, and is probably the popular 10K in the United Arab Emirates for serious club runners. I have now run it ten times and I have never known conditions as good. The wind died to zero within a minute of the start and the temperature was unusually low at 61 degrees.

I don't really understand what happened. I set myself a sensible target of 40:53 (87 age grade) and made my usual excessively fast start. By about half a mile, I had slowed myself down to something more sensible, but still well under 40-minute pace. Usually I start to fade somewhat after a mile or two, and then continue at a steady pace for the rest of the race. This time I felt exceptionally good and thought it would be cool to pass half-way with a 5K PB, which I did (Garmin time - no 5K mat).

I thought I could keep the pace to 8K and achieve the sub-32 that I was depriived of by an under-distance course in November. I didn't check my time at 8K, but I know it was well under 32, even though I had started to feel really tired about 7K.

By now, I was not enjoying the race, but told myself, as I have done a few times before, "You don't have to enjoy it. Just do it." this inexplicably made me enjoy it again, though the effort was quite painful. I stopped glancing at my watch and just tried not to drop back relative to other runners. I even managed a spurt for tha last 200 metres, though I was passed by someone who must have been holding himself back.

I had no idea at all of my finish time. I forgot to look at the clock. I thought i might have beaten my four-year-old PB of 40:28 (on the same course), but I never imagined that I could ever in my life beat 40 minutes.

39:51. 1st 60+ by well over 10 minutes. Three minutes ahead of the first 55-59. And of course, best British 65-69 10K of the year, so far.

How awesome is this!!! HUGE congrats Chris!!!

When it comes to running the 10k I believe in the about 20 seconds faster then my planned 10k pace for the first mile. After that I normally settle into my planned pace.

Again simply AWESOME performance, way to kick off 2014!!!!!

#1 in the land.  Awesome Chris.

What a great race! I can't imagine how you could have run it any better. Well done!

Does this make you the Queen's Champion or something of that ilk? Wouldn't that be great?

The sub 40 (!!!) stays with you even if your name is bumped from the ranking spot.  That is awesome and tells me you must be managing at least OK with the knee issues.  Great job!

Outstanding performance. Pretty amazing AG time! I'd love to break 80% let alone 90, but consistently high 70's. You inspire us in grand master category, Chris!

Way to go Chris, you nailed that race. Very inspiring, huge congrats #1.

Nice.  I guess this isn't enough to get Knighted, though.

Fantastic, Chris - you are most definitely amazing.  Keep up the great work.

Congratulations Chris! Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Chris that is just awesome!  Wow!  Thanks for sharing that - I would love to break 40 some day - thanks for the hope that better days are ahead!!

By the way my "breaking 40" days have been over since the late 1990s.

Still at the top. There were only two 10Ks last weekend - not the dozens I expected. All the "county championships" were cross-country. It just shows how out of touch I am with the running scene in my own country.

Schuey wrote:How awesome is this!!! HUGE congrats Chris!!!

When it comes to running the 10k I believe in the about 20 seconds faster then my planned 10k pace for the first mile. After that I normally settle into my planned pace.

Again simply AWESOME performance, way to kick off 2014!!!!!

Ah! That's about what I did. Perhaps I had better adopt it as a strategy, instead of seeing it as a tactical error. It certainly seemed to work this time.

mountandog wrote:#1 in the land.  Awesome Chris.

It won't last. Someone over a year older does about 39-minute 10Ks. He travels from England, and beat me in Dubai both the last two years. I shall be away on leave, so shan't be up against him this year.

Mark B wrote:What a great race! I can't imagine how you could have run it any better. Well done!

Does this make you the Queen's Champion or something of that ilk? Wouldn't that be great?

What Queen wants a champion whose greatest talent is running away?

Chris M wrote:The sub 40 (!!!) stays with you even if your name is bumped from the ranking spot.  That is awesome and tells me you must be managing at least OK with the knee issues.  Great job!

I was flabbergasted and still can't remember much of the last two miles. The knee has been fine bone-wise for the last three years. I'm still angry with the "specialist" that misdiagnosed me with osteoarthritis and wasted six month's worth of training opportunity.

fostever wrote:Outstanding performance. Pretty amazing AG time! I'd love to break 80% let alone 90, but consistently high 70's. You inspire us in grand master category, Chris!

Thanks. I still can't imagine repeating it, though I'll try, of course.

RobA wrote:Way to go Chris, you nailed that race. Very inspiring, huge congrats #1.

Probably a one-off, but I am working working on a repeat.

ounce wrote:Nice.  I guess this isn't enough to get Knighted, though.

Knighted! I'm only a runner, not a cyclist, you know :-)

KBFitz wrote: ... hustling through the pain with no idea what time is on the clock.

If I didn't know before, I certainly do now. I hardly remember anything of the final two miles, except that they were hard.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Fantastic, Chris - you are most definitely amazing.  Keep up the great work.

Thanks, Michele. I amazed myself this time. It's more than I could have dreamed of.

Jerry wrote:Congratulations Chris! Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Thanks, Jerry. I guess I can now sit back and be lazy!

John Kilpatrick wrote:Chris that is just awesome!  Wow!  Thanks for sharing that - I would love to break 40 some day - thanks for the hope that better days are ahead!!

If your experience is anything like mine, it'll come suddenly and unexpectedly after a  few years of moderate improvement.

Awesome!