Women's 10k

I ran my first in-person 10k race in almost 2 years and am proud that my post-marathon legs could sustain a fast pace.

Guest appearance by Oor Wullie.

Why Women's 10k

My friend/colleague Kez made a comment about running a 10k with me. I wasn't entirely sure if she was being serious, but I told her about the Women's 10k coming up, and she said yes.

I had not run an in-person 10k race since the Aberystwyth Charity 10k, the last of my 2019 10k races. I was quite excited at the idea of doing a 10k race again.

A Castle start

The race started on the Royal Mile near the Castle.

It made for a great backdrop for our pre-race photos.

Kez and me.

Mandatory jump.

It was a rainy morning, so we were lucky to get blue skies for the race.

Skipping the queue

I'm conscious of the fact that I obsessively talk about toilets on this blog, but it's an important part of the race experience. 

The Women's 10k probably had the fanciest setting for porta-potties with the Castle right behind them.

I was surprised when we did not have to queue for the toilets, at a women’s race of all events. That seemed highly unusual.

Toilets with a castle view.

But then when we got out of the toilets, I saw there was a queue at the other end. So either we cut in front of the queue, or the people at the other end were being silly forming one when there didn't need to be.

A city center route

Other than wanting to race with Kez, a big selling point of this race was the route, which goes through Edinburgh city center. Not even the Edinburgh 10k does that.

Waiting to start.

A Royal Mile start.

We started off on Lawnmarket, headed down the Mound, into Princes Street Gardens, and over to and down the Royal Mile.

Happy 10k runners in East Princes Street Gardens.

The first 2 miles were mainly downhill, and we were off to a fast start, each mile around or under the 9:30 mark. Running under 10 minute miles has been tricky to do all year, but especially while marathon training.

Things got a bit slower as we ran into the wind and had a bit of a climb around Holyrood Park. But mile 3 was our only mile over 10 minutes.

We then had a speedy second half through Cowgate, Grassmarket, Tollcross, and west Edinburgh. Mile 6 got as fast as 9:09.

Approaching mile 4 in the Grassmarket.

A stadium finish

Even better than the city center running was the finish, which was at Murrayfield Stadium. It made it feel like I was competing in a major, international sporting event. 

Less good about a Murrayfield finish: I didn't realize there was a brewery right near the stadium, which meant the last bit of the race came with a nasty brewery smell.

But this didn't stop us from having a super speedy finish. We ended the race running into the stadium across the field.

Murrayfield finish.

Looking into Murrayfield from the finisher area.

My final time was 1:01:07, but Strava says we ran 6.48 miles. I had hoped for under an hour, which we technically did for 6.2 miles. Not sure why I can't seem to run a race these days that's exactly the length it's meant to be...

Think my pace is reflected in my red face.

Finally, a woman's finisher shirt

The race swag was pretty good for this race. All the goodies came in a drawstring bag.

And finally, I got a finisher shirt that was actually sized for women. Turns out just eliminate men from a race and the female figure suddenly becomes relevant. 

Those eyes say, I'm tired and want to shower now.

Motivated by having a racing buddy

My main reflection for this race was how motivating and helpful it was to run with Kez, and that feeling was mutual. 

Kez had never run a 10k race before and was worried about having the mental motivation for the last few kilometers. We chatted through the whole race, which made the miles go by quickly. 

For me, Kez motivated me to keep my pace up. As I said, I'm not used to running fast (or rather, what's fast for me) anymore, having just come out of marathon training. 

I know I would not have kept up the fast pace if I didn't have Kez there. As long as she was keeping that fast pace, I would, too. 

I not only kept pace, but I didn't tire out. My legs felt great as we crossed the finish line.

Finishing the race with Kez.

It's making me feel more confident that I can get back to running 10k times like I was in 2019. Learning how to balance pacing between different distances seems possible now.

Next race

Supernova 5k (The Kelpies)

I'm doing my first night race.