Gainsborough 10k 2018 – Sarah Lakeland
In 2017 I entered Gainsborough 10k as it’s in March and I thought it would be a good way to motivate myself to keep up running over winter as I was only really use to 5-6km of continuous running at that point. I didn’t really “train” I just ran for enjoyment with Dexter my dog. I was thrilled when I ran under 1 hour (59min 49 seconds) as I’d never done that before, I was use to the company of the back Marshall in any 10k’s I’d done pre-children a few years earlier.
Only a matter of a couple of weeks later I had my first personal training session with Steve and I’ve been a weekly regular ever since. I massively improved my performances last year in some pool based sprints and I ended the year with Curly’s Doncaster 10k where I surpassed my expectations and ran a PB of 51 mins 17 seconds.
Having entered Gainsborough 10k again this year the self inflicted pressure was on now to improve on my PB. It would also be a marker for the last years training as I have consistently trained regularly for the whole year between to races with Steve and the many sessions alone in between.
In the week building up to the race I got really nervous of not doing as well as I should (completely all in my own head). Steve just told me to run so seen as it tends to work if I do as he says, I did!
On the day I wasn’t nervous beyond the usual multiple toilet trips and I planned to just run on how I felt and keep an eye on the pace each kilometre but not stress over it. The weather was amazing and all felt pretty good. I was working quite hard as I knew I needed to in order to do the best I could. I probably ran a bit quick for the first couple of Km but settled into it. By 7ish Km I was hoping the last 3 would pass quickly as I was only just able to maintain the effort but I got to the last km and gave it all I had. I pretty much ran the whole race with a bloke who seemed to struggle when I felt good and perked up when I was struggling so we got to the end together with a bit of encouraging each other. I crossed that finish line knowing I’d given it the best I could and I did get another PB of 50 mins 15 seconds which is outstanding given last years time.
I have improved by 9mins 44 seconds in a year and managed to do a 1 min 2 second PB between November and March so winter training hasn’t treated me badly at all!
So the OTCF effect in one year is evident in my performances, thank you Steve! Next time sub 50 will be mine as I was so close but I can’t be disappointed in what I’ve achieved as I’d have only dreamt of what I can do now a year ago.
