Well, it feels like I’ve been talking about it forever, but the Sunderland City 10k finally rolled around today.
We got up at stupid o’clock, set out at still stupid o’clock, met our friends Sean and Ed on the Metro, and arrived at Keel Square in Sunderland in plenty of time to drop off our bag in the baggage area and make our way to the starting pen. After the usual ridiculous mass warm-up shenanigans (I’ve given up trying to follow those – there’s never any space in the crowd and it’s not something I’d do for a normal run anyway), we were off, a lot more promptly than last year.
I went off far too fast – an opening kilometre of 6:01 mins, when I should have been aiming more for a steady 6:55 or so – but although I ended up paying for my too-speedy start a bit in the second half, I did settle down over the course of the race, and I came in at 1:09:56, just snatching the sub-1:10:00 I’d been aiming for. That’s a 7:29 min 10k PB, and I was thrilled, obviously! It did require a pretty epic sprint finish at the end, when I spotted the gun time on the board and realised I was in with a chance.
After meeting back up with Geth and Sean, we went for breakfast at Caffé Nero while waiting for Ed to finish the half marathon, then met back up with Ed, got back on the Metro, and went for a few pints once back in Newcastle. Then Geth and I went home and ordered pizza. Perfect race day, really.
Looking forward to the next one! Only two weeks to go.