Autumn Breaker 10K

Well it was another lovely day for the Autumn Breaker 10K at Stanley Park, which involves two laps of the park and a fast finish on the athletics track.

My day wasn't going as planned with my youngest son being sick so I had to leave my husband cleaning this up (felt slightly guilty). We then got lost in Blackpool looking for a cash machine - I'm good at getting lost! We eventually got there with not much time to spare so I jumped out of the car and ran to the sports centre to register.

As I walked in it was chaos as some of the on-line entries had messed up. This wasn't how I'd envisaged preparing for my race, running around like a lunatic, and to top it off it was the grumpy lady from the Golden Girls race who hid the safety pins from us and my is she still grumpy!

I finally got my number and stole four safety pins from said grumpy lady and met John and Chris on the track, where we just had time to wish each other good luck before we were off.

I knew what I had to do to get a sub-50 but could I keep that pace up for 6.2 miles? The course was very flat with just a couple of big puddles to wade through. I felt myself slowing at mile four but kept pushing on; I don't know which is harder the running or the mental battle I have with myself.

As I saw the track approaching I looked at my watch and didn't think I was going to do it. I saw Chris, John and my dad cheering me on then I heard Matthew shout "Come on mummy, you can do it!" and I thought "Yes I can!"

I took myself back to Wednesday night's speed training on the track running round with Nicola and I picked up my pace. I did make some strange involuntary noises as I crossed the line, which was slightly embarrassing, but it was worth it coming in at 49.55!

Chris and John finished well before me both setting new PBs - Chris 37.57 and John 43.03 - they just keep getting faster and faster so a big well done to them.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone at Trawden. When I started running three years ago never in a million years did I think I would be running sub-50 and it's thanks to all the support, encouragement and training I've received from Trawden, so thank you everyone and happy running!