Race for Life: Hyde Park

Last week I participated in a 10K run.  I became ill for about four days following the race (not run related) and think I may had contracted the dreaded swine flu but .... I'm feeling okay now.  Really - it's nothing.  Yay for my refugee immune system!

J, Cz, me and few others decided to meet at Sloane Square tube (outside Harvey Nicks!) for a walkies to the park.  Cz was a little late so we had to go off without her.  J and I being fans of Race for Life decided to participate in the Hyde Park event this year to see how it's course compared with that of the familiar Regent's Park.  The weather wasn't looking great and before we reached the meeting point it started pissing, pissing down.  We sought shelter under a large tree along with 100 other women (not wise) and remained there for a good five minutes until the rain subsided.  Great - wet grass. 

No one was there to cheer us on *sob sob* and consequently we didn't have any bag carriers.  I only realised this when I was on the tube when it occurred to me that I had a backpack on my back.  Oh dammit - now I would have to do a 5k run with a bag on my back!  The drag will slow me down!

The first thing J and I noticed was that there were too many women participating in this run.  The race began on the not-wide-enough footpath and we had to run along the edge of the mass of women dressed in pink in order to avoid pushing the other participants.  It was elbow to breast elbow for a good 300 metres before the pack starting breaking up.  I realised during the run that I have barely explored Hyde Park and it is indeed an ideal park for jogging.

With the knowledge that this race was not going to be as difficult as the 10K, I did push myself to run it at a faster rate.  5K surely is a piece a cake after doing a 10K run!  As we approached the tail end, I immediately thought the race organisers must be true sadists for including a small incline - the only incline - less than 500 metres from the finish line. *wince*

As I gained close to the finish line I was pretty happy to see that I was going to better my previous efforts and I clocked in at 17 mins 25 seconds??  If anyone saw me cross the finish line at that point, they would have seen my face transform from delight to confusion.  Whaaa? I deducted 1 minute and 10 secs to counter the delay at the start line.....so I ran the race in 16 mins 15 seconds? No way!!  That would mean that I averaged just over 3 minutes for each 1 km?  I might as well compete professionally! 

J and I figured out that there must have been a 10 minute discrepancy and so my time for the run was the more respectable (and believable) time of 26 minutes 15 seconds.  My best time to date! This will probably be my last Race for Life for a while but here's to competing in charity runs in other places around the world!