Great Yorkshire Run 10k

I had never been to Sheffield in my life and I was expecting today to be a bit grim to be honest, as really Sheffield as a place hasn't ever been the most appealing venue I could think of travelling to, and after seeing the Full Monty, I think I could have lived without going.

Nevertheless, as todays race fitted in nicely with my Great North Run schedule, I had decided to enter another of the Great Run series - the Great Yorkshire Run 10k - in grim old Sheffield !

I like the BUPA races for two clear reasons, firstly, the field starts in waves of similar ability which means that I don't tend to be overtaken by hoardes of people and coversily don't get held up behind fat fairies ! Secondly, and most importantly, a nice medal to put in the old medal treasure chest aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggh ! (pirate noise)

We arrived in plenty of time, which gave me plenty of time to do some proper stretching for a change and have a walk around, so that we knew where to meet after the finish. Todays race was also the first race that I will be doing without an ipod. I know that I haven't been using ipods during triathlons and managed a half marathon without one, but stand alone running races have been a different animal and I have always 'needed' one - well today that comfort blanket was most definately being removed !

Sheffield itself was surprisingly un-grim in the end and it was shaping up to be a good day out. The race itself starts in the city centre and heads out towards Hillsborough before looping around and finishing back in the city centre - it is a lot like the event in Manchester.

I set off at intentionally even pace, and tried not to get too pulled along by the excitement, as I didn't want to blow myself up too quickly. The first couple of kilometres went by without incident and by 3km I had overtaken todays TV celebrity (not in the same league as Rory Underwood so I'll keep quiet this time !) I saw a bloke with triathlon calf protectors on, and then a young lad with a cheaper version of these - knee high football socks ! still, I bet they did exactly the same job.

At 5km, we reached the turnaround point, where there was a large screen showing all of the runners running towards the bend. I looked for me, found me, then tried to smile as I could see myself looking a right miserable bastard on the massive screen !

The rest of the race was a battle to try and keep a the pace a good one with an eye on trying to achieve something near my PB time for the distance. At 8km I was convinced that I was on for a personal best and felt really good, however, this dissipated along with the potential PB when we hit a hill just before the 9km mark. A hill was not really what I wanted at this point and it took a lot out of me. Once at the top of this incline I tried to make up any lost time and thought I was making inroads and then with 400m to go....... another f@@**ng hill !!! That was it I'm afraid, it was only 200m long, but the energy had gone out of the legs and I struggled over the line in 57.22 which is less than a minute outside of my PB.

In all then, happy to finish in a decent time in the end, happy that my knee held out and seems in good order, and of course happy that there is more bling in the treasure chest ! aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh ! Oh, and running without an ipod is the dogs nuts ! you get to take in so much more !

I am seeing the physio tomorrow evening about my runners knee injury and hopefully will get the go ahead to continue on to the Great North Run in two weeks time. I will post again after that event !