And the results are in...

Yesterday I reached the culmination of my training yesterday and completed the Great Manchester Run 2005. I was quite pleased with my result of 1h08m15s although I didn't make under the hour which was one of my targets. I did however keep going for the whole 10k without breaking into a walk half way round (which I did last year). The trend is downward :-)

The race itself was within my limits, I didn't push myself too hard. The field was very crowded at the start which stopped me from racing ahead. This was probably a good as it meant I could slip into the zone at 2km without having to deal with the repercussions of over-cooking the start. Getting onto Chester Road (which is a slow climb over about 2.5km towards the Old Trafford football ground) caused me a little concern as the sun came out from the clouds. Luckily it didn't get as hot as last year. The only other bit which caused me concern was the deceptively steep climb after the water stop after Trafford Wharf. Once I got onto the final straight down Chester Road (downhill this time) I felt quite comfortable although not able to put on a final burst of speed for the finish.

Generally I enjoyed the race (the event, the crowd, the sense of achievement). I'm very happy with the result as well as the motivation to exercise that the race has given me for the last 4 months. Although I'm going to scale back on the running for the rest of the year to try out new things I think I'll enter the 2006 race. Anyone else joining me next year?