Event - RunLondon 5K

Last autumn Nike started their "I will Run a Year" campaign with a 10K race in Hyde Park. They have followed this up with 5K races every two months, and I've only missed one due to a sprained ankle.

Today was the final race and it was up in north London, in Finsbury Park. I elected to go at 11am instead of running in the first wave which is what I usually do. This was lucky as the aerliest train from Ascot was 8.22am, and once I'd got to Waterloo and cycled up to the venue it was spot on 10am. I just missed seeing the first lot start.

It was a swelteringly hot day, but I quite like running in the heat. This was my first race since the Windsor Triathlon, and though my left calf has recovered now, I haven't trained enough to be confident enough of it to go all out. I decided to try for 4 minute 15 second kilometers. This is a pace I'm fairly comfortable with and should return a 21:15 time. If I'm feeling good and manage to keep up that pace, then there would be a chance in the final half kilometer sprint to beat 21 minutes.

The course was a loop which started about 600M from the finish, and from there continued on for two full laps. This 600M section therefore had to be run three times, and it was uphill. I made good time though for the first km, wasn't far off the mark for the second one, and it was only on the second ascent that I think I slowed a little.

Paula Radcliff was running - not at her serious pace though, she ran in the first wave too, and she's just announced that she is pregnant. I got a good position near the front for the start, and she must have joined a bit behind me, because she overtook me at about the 3.5k mark. We were actually running at not too dissimilar a pace, and we finished about 100M apart, with only three other runners between us. I did manage a pretty strong last 500M.

I felt good throughout the race, so I obviously wasn't trying hard enough, and sure enough, my time of 21:52 bears this out. It's still not a bad time, but quite far from my best time in March which was 21:05.

I walked down to the Nike stand an exchanged a few words with Paula. I got my T-shirt signed, and got a signed postcard for the girls too. She was very pleasant and generous with her time.

I had a good day out, and got some good cycling in as well as I had to race back to Waterloo (about 6 miles) because of an semi-emergency at home