Had to get up to London for a 10am start, meant a nice and early 7am train, good start! Met up with rest of the team and we were ready to go:

In total there were 9 starting groups, we were split between group 8 and 9 which meant instead of starting to run at 10am, it wasn’t until around 10:20 that we ‘took off’. Timings were all done using an electronic chip that you attached to your shoe, this tracked when you went over the start line, the half way point and the finish line. So with a big cheer we got underway, the cheer was from the crowd and I assume people who had run before and knew what they were in for. Personally, I would be lying if I didn’t say I was nervous, extremely excited at the same time though.

One thing to note, when you’re running 10k, it does not help to see the leaders sprinting past the 9k marker as you are approaching the 1k marker, its quite de-motivating.

Back to my personal race, started off with @missdd and @matt_paradise, after not long @matt_paradise sped off ahead and before I realised Id lost @missdd behind. Set in to run the remaining 8k on my own… not a problem, the crowd were as expected fantastic! Cheering and clapping everyone through, the street music was great, especially the steel drumming band under a bridge at 3k/8k. Sometimes it was tough not to dance too much.

Looking back on my training, I had not done more than 6k, at around the 6k mark of the run I think I should have been in trouble, but in fact I felt fine! The feet were a little sore, my left knee hurt and my shin splints had splinted (?) at around 0.5k, but still flying, well running! Somewhere between 6k and 7k I caught back up with @matt_paradise and we ran together until 9k when he once again sped off in front. On seeing the “400m to go” sign I hit the accelerator, literally sprinting the final distance, people looked quite surprised to see me fly past.

I’d done it! I’d finished the race, without stopping once (even though I needed the toilet from the very start), it felt rather good! And still does, even though the legs ache just a little…

My time? Oh yeah – I finished in 1hr 00mins 43seconds, would have been nice to break a minute by no biggie.

I want to say a massive thank you to the rest of the team, for their support and a massive well done to them all for finishing. Their times from left to right: @missdd – 1:31, @stephaniebutler – 1:27, @cyarns – 1:08, @matt_paradise – 1:01.

Top effort, so what next? Great south run me thinks – 10 miles later this year, a nice stepping stone towards a half marathon next spring and who knows for 2011…

Therefore, I haven’t been for a long distance run in over 3 weeks, and haven’t done more than 6.5K at once. Making the 10k on Monday feel a little daunting…

Anyway the plan for the day will be to live location to my Sports Tracker account, and record a couple of QIK vids before and after. During if I get the urge but that is very very unlikely. I will put a post up on Sunday with all the details you would need to follow my “efforts”.

Finally, still plenty of time to sponsor me, need a few more to hit my target of £350, so anything you can spare would be hugely appreciated! Simple go here: https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/colinmercer

Wish me luck!