My 5th 10k race in just over 2 weeks after Bella Belter (36:18), SVHC Glasgow 800 (36:57), Irvine Marymass (36:13) and Bute Highland Games (36:12).
My 2 targets today were to dip under 36 minutes, and if possible to get 1st V50.
I'd not run the Paisley 10k before, but the weather was perfect. Bright and sunny, and not too warm. Plus it was nice to be running on closed off streets for much of the route.
I realised as soon as I arrived that my main V50 rival would be Alex Robertson of Motherwell. Given that Alex had been completely out of sight at the Calderglen 10k and Bella Belter, I wasn't sure how I'd get on with keeping him within sight this time.
The start was all pretty frantic with a high quality field leading out, so the first km was quick-ish, but not too mad. I got drawn into passing Alex a couple of times early on, which I suspected was not a great idea.
By 2km I'd dropped back from directly chasing Alex and George Pettit.
I went through the 5k marker on 17:45, which I thought meant sub 36-min was on the cards.
James Healy caught me around 7km, so we worked together on the disused railway.
I could see Alex and Andrew MacKenzie almost within catching distance just ahead.
As we crossed Canal Street with 1km to go I realised we were on 32:36, which meant a sub 3:24 final kilometre to break 36 minutes. I gave it more or less all I had, and closed down Alex to within 5 seconds, but finished in 36:06. Still it felt like another good steady 10k, without exerting myself too much.
 |
| Paisley 10k route |
