Bethel 5k

I was looking forward to the second of the two 5K races in the club road championships. The first one has been fun, but I had made two mistakes: one was to eat too much too late, and the other one was to set off too fast. And if you can try to improve only if a few weeks later that's nice.

This time Chris was also going to run it. So we travelled up together. I don't think we've raced each other before! And he has local connections. We drove to the village, and he parked in front of his mother-in-law's house. And we went to say hello. She was really nice!

As it was registration on the day only I figured we shouldn't linger. Chris's mother-in-law even offered to drop us off at the start, which was at the edge of the village. That was really kind of her! And then we could get registered. And then we still had enough time to go to the loo and do a bit of a warmup. And chat to other runners. If you race loads, and you do things like the Tuesday Track and Thursday Hill, you get to know quite many of them!

Then it was time to line up at the start. And we were off. And in the first kilometre or so, I really made sure to keep an eye on my watch. My aim was to run about 4:15 per kilometer, but in the beginning when you are still fresh it can be tempting to go faster. I didn't want to make that mistake again! So in the beginning, I was making myself slow down a few times.

Before I knew it, I already saw the first runners come the other way. I had expected the turn around point to be at 2.5 km, but that wasn't how it turned out. It was not a there and back; there was an extra loop at the end. But a turning point always gives you opportunity to cheer at other runners, and to get an overview of the field. There was a bloke running with a buggy in second position! That is impressive.

On the way back I started to struggle. I wanted to keep up my pace. But it was a challenge! I was counting down the kilometres. And wasn't quite sure what sort of loop they would have added to make the course 5k long. But at least the field around me was stable. Nobody seemed to be in a position to overtake me. And I did manage to overtake a few people in the last mile. There was a bloke who did attempt to get past me shortly before the finish, but that didn't work. And with my very heavy breath I finished! It was within 22 minutes, but I was not sure by how much. Faster than Llanrug, anyway.

On the way back. The bloke in black wouldn’t manage to get past! 

I now wanted water. And my recovery drink. And cheering for the other runners. Soon enough, Chris appeared. Together we cheered on a few more people, but then Chris wanted get his recovery drink as well, which he had left in the car. I wanted to know if I had a category win, but it looked like they would only find that out when they would compile the results. I think they were timing it Parkrun style: one person notes down the running order of the race numbers coming in, and another one writes down at what time the first, second, third etc runner come in. Only afterwards will they then combine the two lists. And only then will they combine the times and the race numbers with runner information, such as name, gender and age. 

Dyfed and Rhian were doing the timing, and they said there was going to be no presentation. They had just handed the first three runners of either gender their prizes and that was it. Okay then! I could go home. I headed for Chris's car. 

Back at the house we reported back to Chris's mother-in-law. And the cat showed up. She was really sweet! So it was mainly Chris doing the reporting, while I was petting the cat. A fine distribution of labour if you ask me. And then we went home. Time for a shower! And my next race would only be two days away…

The next day I found out I had done it in 21:29, almost a minute faster than Llanrug. And a lot more consistent. My fastest kilometre was only six seconds faster than the slowest. In Llanrug that had been 33 seconds. 25 if you take don't compare the fastest km with others that had more uphill. Clear improvement! 

Strava said that was my third best time on the 5k. My best and second best time had been in the two 8k Borders League races I had done. One of these had been pretty much flat as a pancake. The other one had had 98 m of ascent, so also of descent, and I suspect my fast 5k time incorporated the descent. I don't know how (or if) you can make Strava tell you that. On the flat course, my time according to Strava had had only been two seconds faster. So I suppose this was pretty good!