Esher 10k Run

The Monday evening training sessions were interrupted by the Mayday Holiday with a layoff on the 7th May. By chance a local school has been organising a 10k road race for the last few years on the holiday which has gradually grown in popularity and now commands entries of up to about 450 runners. Our coach recommended giving it a try in place of the session, which seemed like a good idea to do something a little longer than the usual 5k ParkRun.

I had run the previous Saturday’s ParkRun and although I’d done a slightly faster time than previously I was still a little disappointed at the lack of progress in posting better times. I was still languishing around in the high end of the 27 minute time frame. It was a last minute decision to do the 10k and I went down to the start to sign on as a ‘late entry’ about a half hour before the start. I hadn’t thought anything about the time I was likely to do, only that a good steady run, while keeping the pace up against others wouldn’t do the training schedule any harm.

So, equipped for the first time in my life, with a chip attached to my shoelaces, I tagged onto the very rear of the throng and we all shuffled off from the start at a steady walk from the school grounds. Soon we were on the back roads and the crush of the start began to ease itself out to the width of the small backroad we were on. After a few minutes we turned onto one of the paths that meanders around the local common. The path itself was just about half dried out after rain a few days previously. For a lot of the way the path would be runnable but would suddenly present a mud bog cutting the width down by more than half. That of course resulted in much jinking about and sudden changes of direction to get the dry path through the mud.

It all settled down after a while as the throng of runners stretched out a bit. An inner loop around Arbrook common was followed by another, larger loop around the perimeter soon followed by a excursion to the other side of the A3 via an unlit subterranean tunnel, around a few fields and back again. Passing through 5k I was going quite well with a time just over 28 minutes but by 7k was starting to slow and a few others were overtaking in style. I managed the last part of the race to the finish without any real problems, but rather slower taking my overall time out to 1:00:54.

The distance was rather more than I’d done recently but If I’d thought about it I would probably aimed to finish in under the hour, but being a spur of the moment entry I hadn’t considered that possibility. Which was a pity. But it was a pleasant run on a sunny day and for me, something out of the ordinary. Perhaps next time I’ll go in a bit more prepared with a target time to run to.