Forgot I started a post on the MHFS 10K i did a month back!

As Magnus Magnusson used to say, I’ve started so I’ll finish.

It was a fantastic way to spend a Sunday morning. I didn’t register for this event until the day before. Spur of the moment, i travelled up to Bellahouston Park in Glasgow and registered at a little porta cabin, paid my fee and got my number.

I arrived next day to take part. There was ample car parking a short walk (around 5/10 mins) from the start/finish line.  Everyone around seemed in great spirits.  I got the impression that this was a first time 10k for a lot of people too, which is cool.

The starting/exhibitor area was very well organised! around 20 mins before the firing gun, two kids TV like people got on a stage and roped as many people as possible into a cheesy warm up session. I last about 2 minutes before embarrassing myself enough that i wandered off to warm up on my own. It was funny though.

So, warm up went well. Think i got a mile in to loosen the legs up. Saw a guy in VFFs too. didn’t speak to him though, wish i had. Just to ask how he was finding them.

There was not target in mind the race. I just wanted to enjoy the run.

Fortunately, I was lined up pretty near the start due to my predicted race time (53 mins), which meant  i had a pretty clear and quick get away when the starting horn sounded.

During the race itself I felt pretty good all the way round. I wasn’t burning myself out but was running as fast as was comfortable. The only time i felt a bit off was at the first water stop. I think it knocked me out of rhythm for a moment, which I got back into after a minute or two.

The route was very nice for the most part – through Bellahousten Park, then out to and around Pollock Park and back to Bellehouston Park to finish where we started.

It was an quite an undulating route, particularly at the 6km mark which for some reason i didn’t spot ahead only to curse the hill when i saw it.  The hill in the last km was pretty nasty too. not overly steep, just long.

Sweating buckets and feeling strong, I crossed the finish line in 48:18.  Very happy with that! It’s a new Personal Best.  What’s more pleasing is that I knew and felt I could have gone faster .

The finish area was very smooth, people funnelled through to give back their chip and collect their medal and finishing packs. Coming out of the finish area a woman was handing out flyers for free massages from one of the Exhibitors in the tented area. I’ll take one of those i thought. There was a 20min wait but one of the nice ladies gave my legs a good going over and all felt fresh again.

All in all, I reckon this was a great event and I’ll definitely enter it again next year!

If you wan’t to find out more about the MHFS 10k, you can visit their website:

http://www.mhfs.org.uk/10K.php

They’ve also posted pictures from the day up on flicker:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10k2010/