Kingston Breakfast run

I am over my first proper running race. I didn't really plan to do any competitive event for this year, but I won the entry for this race 1,5 months ago via Whole Food's Facebook page. I didn't take 100% seriously the preparation, but I tried to do my best with training. I think I did well!

16 miles. That was the distance what waited for me yesterday morning. Me and Adel caught the night bus very early (London's public transport is absolutely terrible on Sunday morning) and we met up with Tarek around 7:10 in Richmond. We had a quick coffee and chat with Tarek before the cab arrived to take us to Kingston. We been on the start place around 8 o'clock. Streets was already full with people, everybody tried to warm up on this terrible typical British morning. Weather was so chilly and grey. Our start was at 8:25. I tried to find my ideal pace, but it wasn't too easy without any race experience. We ran the first 5 miles altogether and after I said good bye to Tarek. I finished my first 8 miles lap around 52 minutes, my pace was under 4:00min/km. I felt great! I wanted to keep back a bit on the second lap's first half and I wanted do do negative splits on the last 4 miles. When I finished the first lap, I already knew, I can do sub 1:50 time. The next question was, can I do under 1:40?! I got the answer a lap later! NO! :) Unfortunately my right quad started to play up and I had some cramp. Nothing major, but when I tried to push harder, my quad started to look up. I still kept my pace under 4 minutes, but I couldn't nail down the last 4 miles. I finished the race with 1 hour and 43 minutes. This time was enough the 34th place in overall and 8th place in my age group! I am more then pleased with it! Tarek finished couple of minutes behind me.

I had 2 gels and a half glass of water during the race, my grain and junk free carb load went very well!

After the race we said hello to CompresSport Tim and caught the bus back to Richmond. We finished the morning in a local Starbucks with a huge cup of coffee and some food.

I have to say, event organising was more then great! Humanrace did the job well! Also big thanks for Whole Foods Market for the free entry and the fabulous goodies bag!

I ran the race in my full CompresSport gears and I wore the new CompresSport full socks for recovery during the day! My legs felt great this morning! I am also really pleased with my new shoes! Wowwww...... These shoes are flying! I only have 2 small blister.

The only negative thing was my Garmin. Something went wrong and I lost my data! :( I haven't got any usable data from the race. Can't be everything perfect... :D