VAANEE 10K Championships @ Monkton Stadium, Jarrow – 8th September 2012

Club member, Dave Moir, was TBH’s sole representitive at this year’s VAANEE 10k Championships and sends in this report.

A bit of a disappointing turn out with only 7 of the 8 entrants making it to the start line, possibly due to a conflicting fixture taking many of the potential entrants over to Farringdon to compete in the open XC relays. It was a fairly hot and muggy affair this year, with the starting temperature of 25C quickly taking it’s toll on the competitors.

I had my race plan, and took an early lead, but after a few laps I realised it was going to be a very slow time and it would be better to just race it. I knew what my planned 5 lap splits should be and was so far off them, forgot about trying to get anywhere near my goal. 3 competitors came with me and at about the 5K mark one dropped off the pace leaving me pulling the remaining 2 around until we reached 9K. The Ken Harker from Richmond & Zetland had obviously decided to push on hard at this point, so after 22 and a half laps of leading, I watched not just Ken, but Kevin Blyth from Sunderland Strollers sail past me and push on hard. I think I may have done too much of the work earlier on and just couldn’t respond, so had to be happy with a time 2 minutes down on my last 10,000m time, placing third overall in the race and taking a silver medal in my age category.

Hopefully next year this fixture won’t clash with anything else and it will be better attended (and a lot cooler). 25 laps can feel very intimidating on a track, but I guarantee if you were looking for a fast 10K time,  it would  be the flattest 10K you will ever run, and if you can switch off and just get on with the work, it is a good way to set a PB.

Dave Moir