Running Scared....

Cherry popping X2 today.

Despite it being the middle of my second week long shift, I had my first job on the Blood Bike for Whiteknights EVS today.
I had a call at 04:05 for an urgent collection from York Hospital to Leeds Blood Transfusion Service .
So after hauling my arse out of bed, my bike gear on and the bike out of my garage, and despite having to detour for a closed level crossing I made the 13 miles for the collection, and 22 miles for the drop off within an hour of the call, and was back home by 05:40.

No point in heading back to bed tho, as the alarm was set for 06:30 so I could get up and out the house to go and run my first race, the York 10K.
So after a peanut butter and banana sandwich and plenty of fluids it was off to York racecourse for the start at 09:00 (with 6000 starters traffic was chocka getting to the parking hence the early start). Once there I was busting for a piss and as they'd handily located all the portaloos at the far end of the start area I risked a nicking for exposing myself in public.

My race predictor from previous best time for half marathon distance says 47mins, best I've run in training is 48mins, I would be happy with 50mins, but finishing would be a start after a 5 week break in running due to injury. NOT the ideal race preparation but hey ho...

I couldn't do much of a warm up either, as we were herded into the start area so tightly you couldn't move, and despite getting myself fairly near the front it still took a minute and a half to cross the start line after the gun. Once over the start things were slow gong to start with as people that really should know better had chosen to get to the front to make life easier for themselves despite slowing everyone behind them down, so as soon as I found some space I upped the pace from 08:30 to about 07:20 min miles to try and make up time and average out to the 7:44 I as looking for to make 48mins. Unfortunately I overdid things a bit (didn't back off again early enough) and burnt myself out a little for the second half. I started feeling it after the 5k water point, but managed to keep going with the final mile being a real struggle...

Splits from my Garmin:
Split Time Dist Avg Pace
1 00:07:28 1.00 07:28
2 00:07:27 1.00 07:27
3 00:07:43 1.00 07:43
4 00:07:49 1.00 07:49
5 00:08:08 1.00 08:08
6 00:08:10 1.00 08:10
7 00:01:59 0.24 08:13
Sum 00:48:47 6.24 07:48 slightly higher than the 7:45 I was aiming for, but them's the breaks.

Official result, texted to me within 20 mins of finishing: Gun Time 00:50:30, Chip Time 00:48:43.

Not bad for such poor preparation, no warm up and just 4 hours sleep. Hopefully scope for improvement on the next one.