12 October 2017

Bangor 10k revisited

It was time for a race again! I hadn't done one since that very wet half marathon in March. And the Bangor 10K was coming up! That's a nice race: close to home (not AS close as the Anglesey half, but not bad) and a nice route. I had hoped to run it with Megan, one of our PhD students, but she had been too late registering. It had sold out!

I hadn't run an awful lot recently so I didn't expect a good result, but I did expect to enjoy myself. And the forecast was dry!

I rode up and parked my bike near the start. I went to get my race number, and then went to the loos. Then I figured I could just read the newspaper until closer to the time of the start, but I bumped into one of the Head Peer Guides. That was nice! We chatted a bit until it was time to take everything off except my running kit (biking requires more clothes). I went to the start!

We started and I was feeling fine. Not fast, but fine. Within meters I was greeted by a bloke from Welsh class! That was nice. Soon we got to the pier. That's always a nice part of the route. And the kilometers ticked by.

At the start

On the pier


We ran to the old tramway which is now a bike path. I sped up a bit! And then the halfway point came. I sped up a bit more. I wasn't sure what sort of time I would get, but I wanted to stay below 50 minutes.

When the 2km sign appeared I went into hard work mode. I was breathing like a hippo! And more so with only one kilometer to go. But the race ends uphill and I was tired. I lumbered up high street and was relieved to cross the finish. I was too tired to think about what time I had run!

I picked up my bag and biked home. After a while the results came in; 49:26! So indeed under 50 minutes. And far from last year's 46:35 but well, I was in better shape then. Not bad altogether! Not sure what's next. The Conwy Half maybe?

 My finish pics. You can tell I'm tired! I'm barely smiling, and you can tell by me turning from some 20-year-old to some elderly bodybuilder upon impact with the ground, that I lost most of the spring in my step...

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