Swindon 10Km

Its official - I am a runner.

Last weekend I took part in a road race. Got a number, a time and a medal for finishing the course. Ran all the way.

Reasons for entering were to:-

1. Gain experience of running in a crowd
2. Run in a competitive environment
3. Measure my progress
4. Run outside the comfort zone of my usual training routes in good weather
5. Establish a Personal Best (PB) time.

 All the above objectives achieved.


We arrived in good time for the 11 o’clock start. Weather was cold and damp with some wind.

To cope with the cold I had brought my red cycling top and black cycling bottoms. But the zip on the top would not work and the bottoms felt too tight for running. So had to extemporize some warm weather running gear using ladies track bottoms and fleece top.

Maybe the only transvestite runner? Worked - kept me warm - if not exactly stylish.

Placed myself near the back at the start. Set off at a gentle pace to begin with to warm up. Managed steadily to increase my pace with peaks at about the 2.5, 4.5, 9 and 9.5 Kilometre points. Worked on a strategy of pushing a bit harder on the uphill but not rushing madly downhill and avoiding any temptation to "race" other runners. Speed tailed off towards the end but with a kick up at the very end.

Average speed 10.2 kph, max speed 13.3kph.

Heart rate peaks appear totally unrelated. Heart rate peaked at about 4, 5 and 7.5Km points. As one might expect heart rate for second half of race was higher than for first half.

How do I know all this? Got a Gadget. Wore My Birthday Present, Precious.
A shiny Garmin.

Official Time - 10Km in 58min 39secs.

A small step for mankind but a giant leap for this man.

End in Sight