Coach Dave's Eccup 10 Mile Race

Last Sunday saw me pull a race vest on for the first time in what seems forever ( actually Ferriby 10 mile road race in January was the last time I actually raced! ).

I chose the Eccup 10 mile road race for no other reason other than I ran it last year and enjoyed the course even though it is very undulating.

The target for this year is the Frankfurt marathon in October where I hope to run a new personal best under 2.41hrs which dates back from 2017.

I  have chosen Frankfurt as a few of the team ran it last year and said it was a great course, historically fast times have been run on it and finally because it falls on my birthday which seemed a cool idea to enter and do at the time and something different to do on my birthday.

Getting the miles in has never been a problem but in recent years my desire to race as regularly as I did while running at a decent level has dropped off and this is probably because I know I am not as good as I once was!!!

Fast forward to Sunday and although at this stage lot’s of racing does not really work for me I also acknowledge that running in races will help to bring my fitness on a level hence the entry into Eccup 10.

A 9.30am start ensured an early Sunday morning get up followed by a breakfast of cold rice pudding and toast washed down with coffee and a couple of pints of water while a bottle of electrolytes was slowly sipped on the drive over to Leeds.

Arriving in plenty of time I collected my number and met up with fellow training partner Keri Pearson who was also running and me, Keri and Jenny went and did a couple of miles of easy running before stripping off and putting our racing shoes on.

My remit for the race was pretty simple in that I wanted a decent workout but to enjoy the race and not worry too much about what pace I ran as the undulation on the course makes it a very tough one to run a personal best on.

Setting off steady I soon dropped into a comfortable rhythm and actually after just over a mile nobody passed me the entire race and I slowly just kept picking people off including 2 athletes in the final mile as we turned and climbed back to the finish.

The results show I finish 2nd V50 and looking at my data from last year and comparing to this year shows I ran at the same heart rate while last year it felt like I had raced it flat out the whole way while this year it had been a very relaxed effort so hopefully shows I am getting a bit fitter!!! Enjoy the read.