Brigg Poppy Run 2014

Yesterday saw a non start of the Wheelers final circuit race of the season when I punctured within a minute of the start - this meant that I had a bit of pent up energy ready for today's Brigg Poppy Run 10k,

I knew some things from last years race:
- The first three miles are into a head wind invariably
- You get two hours free parking in Brigg

That was it - decision made, drive to Brigg, time the parking, and work hard into the headwind - and that was today's game plan.

About 350 starters for the race today in total, and maybe another 20 or so that took part in the 'Military Challenge' of completing the course with full backpack. That wasn't for me, and after those lads had departed at 10.45 I took my place three rows back from the start and waited for my start at 11.00am.

Boom, away we went and I had about 20 metres before heading right out of the car park into that headwind. Right, work hard, and I did - can't put my finger on it but it felt like my cadence had improved - which I should put down to the last three weeks turbo programme ! 6.49 for the first mile and then 7.02 for the 2nd - this was setting up a very fast race. The 3rd mile was a toughie though, slight up hill then right turn into a farm track and out in exposed farmland to the turnaround point - 7.12 for the third mile and an average of 7.02m/m at the turn - an improvement on last years effort.

Homeward bound then and for a PB I would need to keep the average below 7.09 so tried not to mile anything above that mark. What goes up must come down, so mile four not only benefited from a back wind but also had a little downhill element to it - 6.58 for that one so job done. 7.02 from mile 5, but I was getting tired and was losing a place or two. Into the last mile and a big effort - I lost another couple of places to strong finishers and the mile itself seemed to take forever - a sure sign of how it was beginning to hurt. Not sure what I did for the last mile but when I crossed the line I had completed my first sub 44 min 10k and had a 7.01m/m average overall to negative split the race.