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After last week’s ‘undulating’ Nigel Barge 10k, in atrocious conditions - cold, wet and windy, I somehow managed to squeeze a new personal best out of myself. The reason was simply the solid training I’ve been getting at Bella, and the excellent work of the coaches in making it fun, interesting and varied.

I had hopes that the Jack Crawford Memorial 10k would be better still, largely because it’s a flat course looping along the Forth and Clyde Canal Towpath. But I’d heard other club members talk of it being narrow and slippy, so I wasn’t getting overly optimistic. Waking this morning to find it extremely cold and icy really didn’t leave me feeling too good about things. I’d also started to worry I may have picked up a cold.

No matter, along I went to Bishopbriggs. A great turnout from the club too meant I was bumping in to folk I recognised as soon as the door to the (lovely and warm!) sports centre opened.

After a short warm-up, we found the start. Bit surprised there wasn’t a pep talk or any form of announcement. Folk just jostled and then the gun went off! For the first time I’d managed to get my starting position about right. Not as much overtaking required as is sometimes the case. I hoped to keep my pace a little bit more consistent than is usually the case, but the first 1-2k is always hard as you’re all trying to find your spot spot. It felt all the more important with a narrow path for the majority of the course. I was extremely pleased to find a good pace, and my splits are pleasingly consistent: 4.12, 4:30, 4.30, 4:32, 4:37, 4:34, 4:43, 4:34, 4:37, 4:25, giving me a watch time of 44:57! An improvement on last weeks hilly, wet and cold 10k by over a minute. The one split at 4:43 being due to a rather fiddly section at the loopback point crossing the canal. I certainly felt I could have pushed that little bit harder in a few spots.

Somebody had been on my shoulder for the last 3k straight, and I really felt that I was starting to pull away, but just as the finish line came in to sight, I was very surprised when they barrelled right past! It gave me a bit of motivation to pick up the pace myself - I used to find it very hard to find anything else for that ‘last push’, and was probably what got me under the 45 minute mark.

So I now need a new 10k target for 2008! Probably more about not having a proper sense of how much I had improved since joining the club than anything else!

Update Results are here, and give an official time of 45:01, but, well, I’m a tiny bit sceptical as I know I started my watch after the gun, and stopped it after the timing line. Still, it’s only a few seconds, and I’ll look to consolidate it by aiming to get a safe sub-45:00 at another 10k sometime soon