Review of the Leeds 10k "Abbey Dash" - 15th November 2015
I grew up in Leeds. My first half marathon was in Leeds, so it
seemed fitting that my first ever 10k race was also in Leeds. I had seen that an old school friend was
running the race and with the promise of hot coffee and a good catch up
afterwards, it seemed like an exciting last minute decision.
Driving to Leeds from
Manchester in torrential rain for the 9.30am race start was like being caught
in a washing machine. With a 5.15am
departure, I took it easy, and gasped at huge walls of water coming from the
wheels of HGV’s and up over cars on the M62.
Fortunately, the company
I work for has an office in Leeds, and they kindly loaned me the use of a car
parking space, clean toilets (and I’m sure a coffee machine if I’d been so
inclined). I looked outside at the deluge and thought of all those poor runners
slipping and sliding inside soggy portaloos.
I bumped into a colleague dressed in running gear. He was
staring with dismay at the rain, which poured in sheets off the side of the
office building.
“It’s okay,” I told
him. “I have a spare bin bag.”
Not pausing to see the
excitement on his face, I walked back to my car, smug in the knowledge that a
promotion must just be round the corner.
Truth be told, I left him because I was so nervous, I didn’t want my
fears to be passed on to him.
Unable to wait any
longer, I left the office and lugged my huge bag of “stuff” (dry clothes,
towel, spares, spares, and lots of spares) towards Park Row, on route to The
Headrow. I passed coachloads of people
being dropped off, shrieking as the rain pelted them. But passing City Square, the sun started to
come out and there was a lovely rainbow.
In the pouring rain, I
whipped off my warm waterproof jacket, stuffed it in my bag and exchanged it
for my bin bag. I sent a hasty text to
my friend to let her know I was thinking of her starting the race. Handing in my bag, I remembered that Leeds
Town Hall has a covered outside area and I did my Rocky impression and ran up
the steps to the shelter where I discovered most of the other runners hiding. I stood next to a rowdy lot of northerners
who were, like hardy northerner do(!) laughing in the face of the torrential
rain. A guy got passed an armband which
read ‘Captain’.
Turning, I spotted another guy
wearing a red top. It was from a race he
had run in Paris.
“I like your top.”
“Thought it was
fitting.”
“Good choice.”
At 9.05am we all started
moving, but I was aware I had not done a warm up run. I tried to jog as much as I could around
Little Queen Street with a few stretches, but it was tough with the rain,
crowds and restricted bin bag (even with holes in it for my head and arms!)
A smiley helper pointed
me to the pink pens where the sub 50 min finishers were located.
Trying hard to mentally
boost myself, I spotted another runner in a Stockport Harriers vest. A fellow Manchester resident, I soon struck
up conversation with him. He talked at great
length about his racing and it turned out we had done similar times in the
Blackpool Half Marathon that year in February. (Read the review here!) And
although I thought that had been one of my hardest races due to the weather, he
disagreed and said he had found the Leeds half harder (which I have also done)
due to the hills.
He confided that he had
taken his ibuprofen.
A slender tall woman in
front intervened.
“I’m with you there,
this is a really hard race. I wish I was
in bed.”
Stockport Guy
nodded. “I’m always really sore after
this one.”
I gulped.
“I don’t know how those
guys over there do it,” I said nodding to the Elites.
Slender girl
smiled. “My other half is in the sub 35
group.”
“I don’t know how you
manage to stay sane living with someone so ultra fit!”
She laughed, nodded, and
then a conversation ensued where we discussed our boyfriends (my other half is
a kids running coach).
Being surrounded by such
tall, strong muscular looking people reassured me, and as I removed the black
bin liner the smell of plastic reminded me of the marathon start line I had
stood on in April this year. This was my
first proper race following that. The
rain started to ease.
Stockport Guy’s parting
words to me were to take it easy at the start and keep to an 8 minute mile
which would bring me in under 50 mins. I could always add to that on the way
back, he added.
After seeing the sub 40
runners leave their pod, we saw that it was our turn and after a short jog, I
could see the start line approaching.
Bearing in mind that I didn’t feel particularly confident about the
race, a surge of adrenaline took me by surprise as the start line came up
quickly.
“COME ON LEEDS! LET’S DO
THIS!!! COME ON!!! WOOP WOOP!”
Yeah, I yelled
that. I would like to tell you that the
adrenaline fuelled psychotic moments stopped there, but, well…
I just get so excited
you see joining in a race, being part of something so amazing. Everyone is so geared up for the moment you
pass the start line and I had spent the previous night waking on and off thinking
it was time to leave. The moment was
here, and we were off!!!
Looking at my Garmin, I
saw that I was running a 6.5 min mile.
“Slooowww down girl,” I
told myself.
7.5min mile.
Then 8.04. Nice.
Keeping it at that pace,
I ran along, feeling strong, mentally running through my muscles, checking they
were working. I then started to feel a little
sluggish but put that down to not really being able to have a proper warm up.
Lots of people overtook
me but I let them. I didn’t want to
start out too fast. Running in the bus
lane, I switched to the road thinking it was slightly easier on the feet.
We started a slight
uphill climb and I could feel my legs starting to work that little bit
harder. I was surprised. When I am out running my long runs, it isn’t
until about mile 7 when my body goes into ‘routine mode’ and I can just run and
run and run and run and run for miles without letting off the pace. But in race conditions, I am usually in
routine mode much quicker, but at a faster pace.
I was doing a fast pace,
but there was nothing routine about it. Half a mile whizzed by, but I was
working hard. My Garmin still showed
8.04.
I had looked at the race
route previously and knew the first three miles were more or less uphill so
this did not bother me too much as I felt I could make it up in the second half
of the race. We entered a retail park,
passing a cinema, bowling alley and a gym which I vaguely recalled had been a
club called ‘Evolution’ back in the days when the most exercise I did was dodgy
dancing fuelled by alcohol.
Then it was back onto Kirkstall
Road. I jumped around big puddles, and
then to my dismay saw that we were still climbing. My Garmin had dropped to 9.30min.
I told myself to get to
2 miles. I realised that I had not done
enough hill training for this race.
A man with a camera
popped up. My crazy psychotic persona
came back.
What with the rain,
telling myself I had not done enough hill training (or speedwork) I started to
doubt myself, and then (as you followers of mine who have read my other race
reviews will know) started to berate myself – was I good enough? In hindsight, I think I had fallen into the
trap of thinking that just because I had done a marathon, a 10k would be
“easy”. It certainly made me realise just how awesome it had been to complete
that marathon.
Mile 3 was tough. After passing Kirkstall Leisure Centre, it
went uphill again. I got to the top of
the hill, and then a little further on had to stop. I was annoyed with myself. I just wasn’t getting into my running zone –
I really don’t know what happened, I struggled to focus.
Seeing Kirkstall Abbey ahead,
I started to look out for spectators.
Someone had promised to be there to cheer me on, but in the rain, the
wind, the awful conditions, I really did not expect them to be there.
I saw a sign for water
but this did not distract me from surveying the crowd. And just as I turned
round the bend, a spectator jumped out.
“Go on girl, GO ON GO ON
GO ON GO ON KEEP GOING KEEP GOING!!!”
My Mum.
And what is the best
thing you can say to your Mum?
“I LOVE YOU MUM!!!!”
I’m not saying everyone
laughed at me (ha ha!) but I don’t mind.
It’s the first time my Mum has seen me racing.
I did another little
WOOP! then dashed off for some water.
I had to join a queue! I
was really surprised but the helpers did their best to get us thirsty runners a
drink, and after snatching up someone’s leftovers, and then a fresh cup, I felt
replenished and sped off.
Downhill. Ahh that felt good. Lots more cameras. I don’t know what possessed me but there was
a Bolt pose at one point. I can't even bring myself to share that photo!
Oh, all right then.
And then we were uphill
again! No!
Soon, I had to stop at
mile 4. (Even writing this makes me cross with myself).
Then I was back
running. I saw the other runners on the
other side of the road and smiled at them coming uphill. I spotted names and started cheering them
on. My watch said 30-something and I
realised that I needed to stop cheering the other fantastic runners (especially
the charity ones) and dig deep.
I passed policemen,
firemen, quite a few spectators, and then it was uphill again. I saw a female runner stop. I stopped next to her. We walked.
“You okay?”
No answer.
I stuck my head a little
round. My eyes met hers. I nodded ahead.
“Come on.”
Smiling, she started to
run.
“Thank you!” she
shouted.
“It’s not me! It’s you
doing the running!”
She sped ahead, I
smiled.
My Garmin said only 1.14m to go
but I was still struggling.
And then my guardian
angel stopped by.
“Look mate, I’m not
getting a PB today so I’m going to get you over that line.”
I laughed. “Oh I’ll get
over the line, just not happening for me either today”.
I wanted to get to half
a mile then leg it to the finish. I
wanted to finish strong.
But my legs were not
playing ball.
My guardian angel
stopped with me. He's the guy in the photos below on the the left.
I shook my head with
disbelief at his kindness. But it made
me want to go on.
We continued
running. I tried to spot the finish line
but couldn’t see it. My Garmin said half
a mile.
I started babbling.
“I want to do a Mo!!!”
I started doing a Mo. (I
did prewarn you of my crazy moments). Sadly, this wasn’t a controlled sprint to
the finish, but me with my arms in a ‘M’ on my head.
My new found friend
laughed.
“C’mon, keep it
together.”
He had a point.
Then the crowds were
there. There were loads of people lining
the road! I don’t think I had seen so many!
I still couldn’t see the
finish, but knew from my Garmin it was close.
“C’MON!” I yelled to my
friend. “LET’S LEG IT!”
I started racing ahead,
pushing with my arms, striding through the masses, wind blowing through my
ponytail. My weary hand came upwards to
my brow in slow motion and I wiped away the sweat. Everyone watched in awe as I
made a last ditch attempt at a hero’s welcome.
“You ok?”
Guardian Angel came up
beside me before I came to a complete stop.
“I JUST CAN’T DO THAT MO
THING!”
We jogged to the
finish. Oddly enough, there was no
banner saying ‘FINISH’ but I saw the timing mats.
My Guardian Angel and I
wrapped our arms around each other’s shoulders and flung our free arms out in
the air.
“YEAAAAHHHHH!!!”
I would like to point
out that photographers did at this moment jump out as if from nowhere!
We took a photo of our
own memory (just in case we did not make the papers). My guardian angel is Karl Baxter and I will leave you
to check him out online. His story is
amazing.
Karl shouted at the
crowd that I was a “Running Ninja” and everyone cheered. This is what running is really about, not
PB’s. It’s about being healthy, living
longer, and meeting great people on the way. I came in at 54 mins 55 seconds,
if you’re interested.
My only criticism of
this race is that I did hear on more than one occasion by finishers that they
were disappointed that there was no medal.
I got a lovely, well designed, flattering blue t-shirt, but a few people
asked me to point out that they really wanted a medal to add to their
collection.
Thanks to the organisers
@TeamAgeUK who made sure everyone was safe and secure at the beginning. Big thanks to the volunteers who stood in the
pouring rain to help out too, you were brilliant.
Until the next race.
(And don’t forget to say hi if you see me!)
Follow me @JWilbyPalmer
Read more race reviews here:
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