Rehab - The new Chapter begins.. by Fulhamnonny

Yesterday I ran the Bupa 10km in London.

I ran this event last year and really enjoyed doing it. As a distance I really like the 10km. It's easy to train for and it's long enough to be a distance challenge that pushes you in a way that i found the London marathon doesn't.

I was worried about all sorts of things leading up to the event. I've only done 1 run since the London marathon and that was 2 weeks ago on a treadmill. I was also worried about pacing myself, if I was fit enough and also about my now very old injury.

We were starting in waves, and in each wave there were 3 separate starts. I was in the first group of the 2nd wave. This was also where all the celebrities were starting which in a way was a little annoying, but I suppose they would have got in the way of the elite athletes if they had started earlier!

I was aiming for a time of 52 minutes, in which I was looking at going 5:15 paced kilometres. I knew from my pacing at the Kingston breakfast run that I should have been able to maintain that pace.

I started of too quickly in which i blame the red bull shot I had 15 minutes before the start of the race! I ran about 4:35 for the first km. I told myself to slow down as I realised I was going too quickly. The next 2 km were still under the 5 minute km which was not good. As we started entering the city of London and going round some of the narrow streets through to the 5/ 6km I slowed down to my target pace. Kilometre 5 was my slowest km for the whole race where I ran 5:16. I picked up my pace a little - without realising it for the second half of the race, but I started to feel sick. As I missed the water station on the first bit of the race I made sure I took on some water for the 2nd half of the race.

During the race near the 7km/ 8km point, The st John's Ambulance on a motorcycle and push bike started moving with flashing lights getting the runners to move out of the way. Someone had collapsed and while I didn't see much, what i did see was one of the guys from St John's doing a chest compression. This was really horrible.

Knowing I was near the end i tried to concentrate on my race again. I knew that if I sped up too early I would probably feel and be sick at the end which i didn't want to do. As i approached the 400 metre mark I still knew that i wouldn't be able to sprint the distance, so i tried to pick up my speed when i got to the 200 metre mark. The timers were saying 1 hour which before I looked at my watch I knew I had done a good time. I stopped my watch which told me I done a time of 51:23 in which I was really pleased about. My official time was 51:17.

The hardest thing about the 10km wasn't the fitness of my legs but how hard my lungs were having to work. My legs felt they could have carried on going but I felt it was my lungs stopping me from pushing myself harder. This is not the first time and it certainly won't be the last time I feel like this, but I wonder what it is, in my lungs that are stopping me.

I also felt after if I'm running really quickly in a 10km why I couldn't convert my time in that to the suggested equeveilent for the marathon. My half marathon time suggested I should have been quicker running the London marathong than what I actually ran it in.

I'm also wondering would I have been able to complete the London marathon and yesterday's 10km quicker if I hadn't broken my ankle? This is something that I'll never know.

The 10km this year I got a new PB for the distance. I've taken almost 3 minutes off last year's time and about 2 minutes off the 10km times I was running during the training for the marathon.

Next year I'm defintely doing this event again hopefully after I've ran the London marathon again!!!