Swansea Bay 10k

Race: Swansea Bay 10k (Welsh Championships)
Time/Position: 36.05 (80th from 3000 [8th V40])
Not even a season's best time, which was the minimum target today: my third appearance for North Wales in the national 10k championships. Instead, this quickly turned into my worst performance in the vest and I couldn't even break 36 minutes on a flat course. We'd stayed overnight at Steve's in Llanwrthwl, and not got much sleep, which didn't help. I was also inclined to blame last week's Pedol Peris epic, but the real reason is probably just lack of sufficient training and intervals in particular - having not trained with Buckley since March. The Swansea Bay 10k is a massive and excellent event, though, possibly even bigger than the Cardiff 10k, with over 3000 runners going from St Helens along the road to Mumbles then back along the seafront to Swansea. Conditions were almost ideal, still and cloudy, although it did become hot and humid on the return leg (for me anyway!). A fast start saw the first 3k covered in 10.30, and a gentle hill led to the edge of Mumbles and the 5k mark in 17.35 or so. If I'd maintained this pace, I'd have managed a respectable time, but although I initially started to gain on some team-mates I struggled again after the 8k mark and was really suffering at the finish. Not a great performance, but it's always an honour to run for the region and the event itself was really good with a big race atmosphere and excellent support from across Wales.