Knocking it up another notch! BAM! 10K, right there.

In my last post, I talked about how I'd signed up for a 10K event in July. And while my last run was partly an attempt to start getting me used to longer runs, I honestly expected the day of the Great North 10K to be the first time I would actually complete a 10K distance. Well, I've gone and blown that plan out of the water. 🙄

Route and stats for my first ever 10K run, showing an average pace of 5:40/km

The last few days, I've been getting all agitated (internally) about how little real opportunity I get to go  for a run when the kids are off school. By the time I get the chance, it's pushing 9pm and I'm feeling too tired to contemplate exercise. The frustration's been exacerbated by missing parkrun to take the younger daughter climbing and even missing the chance to run with the elder daughter at junior parkrun. And then I realised that I'll have to miss next week's parkrun too as we're visiting relatives again.

So, despite really not feeling it, I went out last night for a run of indeterminate length, but knowingly starting on my colleague's 10K route. You know... just in case I perked up and felt like it after all.

Of course, without the time pressure of getting back for a meeting, it was pretty inevitable that — barring injuries or exhaustion — I'd end up doing that 10K route. Unless I'm actually hurting, I hate to back away from a challenge.

I set off at an easy pace and the first kilometre felt like it passed pretty quickly. Not long later, I was 2 kilometres in and the light was fading while I ran the most poorly lit part of the loop. After 3km, I was starting to feel the passage of time. I realised that this was going to take a while (obviously!) and wondered whether I would cut it short. Backtracking never feels good, so I pretty much ruled that out. And cutting through Gosforth Park from its western gate would probably only shave a couple of kilometres off at most — if the gates were even open. The further I went, the more I realised I probably was going to attempt the full 10K after all and so my focus was very much on pacing myself.

As I passed along the northern edge of Gosforth Golf Club, I finally hit trails that I'd not run before, so there was something new and green to look at. That didn't last long, mind, and soon I was back in the housing estates and passing 4km. From there, the route turned northward up the Great North Road past the Three Mile Inn. At the time, it felt like it wouldn't be long before I was at the Gosforth Park entrance, but looking back at the route now, I wouldn't reach that till the 6km mark. This part of the run definitely felt the longest and not only for that miscalculation; my left foot was starting to hurt in a way it's never done before in my Brooks shoes. Again, I eased my pace to compensate, but I did start to wonder how long I could last.

As I passed 5km, the idea that I'd just done a parkrun and was immediately embarking on a second parkrun crossed my mind and struck me as truly surreal. Thankfully, I didn't linger on that thought. For the first time since Couch to 5K, I'd gone out wearing my earphones. With a few podcasts queued up, talk of electrons, quarks and muons kept me distracted for now.

Positivity and belief arrived with 6km. Sure, I'd done longer runs, but this was the point at which I felt I was well over halfway. At 7km, I knew I'd matched what I'd achieved on Wednesday, but the difference in pace was stark. On Wednesday, I'd done 7km over ups and downs in 37:00. On this run, I'd done the same distance on largely flat terrain and taken nearly 40 minutes. I had to remind myself this was on purpose. On Wednesday, I'd been pushing hard for a shorter distance. This time, I was in for the long haul.

Between 7 and 8km, the slight hill that nearly broke me a few weeks back felt like nothing at all at my reduced pace. Granted, my left foot still wasn't great, but it was holding up. My hips and knees occasionally threatened a complaint, but pace management was keeping them in check too. From here, it was just a question of hanging in there. It felt doable. When Google Fit announced the time at 9km as being 50:50, it was satisfying to know that I was going to get a time under an hour.

And then, finally, it was done. I hit 10K crossing the dual carriageway near home and had just a few hundred metres more before I stopped. So... I've finally done 10K non-stop. It actually feels a little anticlimactic, given I've stolen the occasion from the actual event I've signed up to, but it's probably a good thing overall that I've shown myself I can do it. Does it tick the 2023 goal box? In spirit, yes, but if I'm really picky, I'd say no — the goal was to do a 10K event. I've just done a 10K training run. But I'm not going to let that spoil the sense of achievement. 😁

And perhaps the thing I'm most pleased with is how I managed my pace. There was the occasional slow kilometre, but mostly I was keeping it sensible around the 5:35/km mark. To judge my starting position in the Great North 10K, I've estimated I'll do between 59:00 and 1:01:00, on a hillier course than this. I now reckon that's a decent estimate, if I can do a 56:32 on a flat course. It would be great to get better than that, but I'm wary of focusing too much on 10K now; I still need to remind myself how to run a fast 5K. It's a shame it's another 2 weeks till I can attempt that at a parkrun, but I guess that gives me time for a bit more practice. 😉