There – the title says it all. You can go an read another blog, but you’re bored then read on….

6 days on from posting my fastest 10 miler for ages I found myself at the start line in Wokingham. A lot happened in those 6 days. (Avatar was brilliant). Wednesday saw me back on the streets for a 10k to keep the legs ticking over, and it too was fast (well for me). In fact my fastest 10 k round the roads here, ever…

Quiet afternoon on the allotment Saturday and I was ready for Sunday morning. The hours drive to Wokingham annoyed me – some miscreant (aka my son) had swapped my CDs for his in the CD changer in the car – trouble was the CD changer is in the boot so by the time I found it, I had no choice but to listen to Keane (OK) and some other band whose name I have no idea.

It was raining in Wokingham. And cold. So  I sat in the car and waited. Eventually it lifted slightly and I hauled myself down to Cantley Park – the start line. There were some changing rooms  so I stripped off all the rain gear and made for the Kit tent. So did 2700 others. To say it was a scrum was polite but I think most got down to the start line on time. The nice grassy field that the tent was pitched on was a quagmire. The only good side was that the queue for the loos was very short. I was slightly spooked as I made my way down to the start area. There were signs for sub 1:10, sub 1:20 sub 1:30 etc but they stopped at sub 1:50 – where were the sub 2:30 signs that I had signed up for. I lined up at the back next to someone who happened to be there walking his dog. He said to me, “I’m not running you know”, to which I replied “What makes you think I’m running”.

Off we went, I separated myself from the dog walkers and the families come to wave off their loved ones and eventually passed the start line. IT took me ages to warm up – I was wearing shorts but did compromise with a long sleeve top.

Like the idiot  I am, I was soon carried away with the running and starting to overtake people. First mile scared me at 9:24, second 9:32 then 9:38. I was trying to be sensible and slow down. The course was pretty flat and the marshals were generous in their support. I kept the pace steady fearing that I would have nothing left in the tank at the end, and by mile 7 I was still under 10 min miles and faster than my benchmark so far – the Royal Parks in London last April. I was even still sub 10 min miles by the end on mile 9 but thereafter the early pace began to tell. Despite the odd pause to walk as the legs started to tighten up, I was faster then the Royal Parks at the end of miles 10, 11, 12 and most importantly 13!

I took advantage of the showers on siteto clean up and change but by the time I got out the stall selling tea and soup was shutting up so missed out, shame!

I have no idea what my official time is for the timers at Wokingham and probably won’t know for a day or so. But given that the Royal Parks was 2:25, I reckon that Wokingham was 2:16 or thereabouts. 9 minutes!

I ought to be pleased but actually I know I have run faster and am annoyed that I went off too fast. Reflecting on it, I feel rather like the legendary Sergie Bubka – who realised that there was money in breaking the Pole Vault world record and did so 35 times, I will continue to eke away a few minutes at a time at this PB and now have Reading in my sights.

Hope you all managed some good runs this weekend - the mileage must be mounting up for you VLMers -  Saturday was glorious down here - shame I wasn't running then.

Have a good week everyone.