Dunfermline 10k

Wednesday night I headed across the water to Fife for the Auld Toun 10k race at Pittencrieff park. I had never done it before so wasn't sure about the course, but from speaking to teams mates it sounded like I wouldn't be getting a quick time as it was supposed to be pretty hilly. From what I saw of the course beforehand I was starting to think the same as there didn't seem to be any flat sections around the park.
It was a glorious June evening for racing, maybe summer is finally here, it was a large Field of almost 400 runners and as usual I didn't really know who to watch out for except from a few familiar faces, one of whom beat me at Penicuik a few weeks ago.

With slightly tired legs warming up I made sure I didn't get too excited at the start and go tearing off. One runner took the lead straight off and I and a few others formed the chase group of 4. Halfway round the 1st small lap 1 of my group started pulling away so I tried to go with him, but I was at the back of the group when he went and just didn't react quick enough so was never able to get onto his heel and ran the start of the first large lap on my own before the next two reeled me in where we ran the majority of the race together working well together in our group of three.

Coming up the last drag with about 1.5k to one of our group came to the front and tried to push the pace and drop the other 2 of us, but was unsuccessful. When I saw him ease up a fraction I thought it was my turn to go, so in true Tour De France style I pulled out from the back of the group and shot across to the other side of the road using 2 back markers as blockers as I went by. I could sense the 2 behind hadn't managed to come with me so kept pushing on over the top of the drag and down what I thought was the last decent before a short climb to the finish line. You should really find out where the finish line is before you start a race, as it wasn't where I thought it was as the start and finish were in separate places, DOH! Thankfully I was running strong so the extra 2 draggy climbs to the downhill finish didn't seem to bother me. Coming down the finishing straight I was pretty sure I had 3rd place wrapped up but I was still keeping the pace high purely to get as quick a time as possible. I'm glad I did as about 5meters before the line I noticed the race clock and it read 33:54, my PB is 33:58, I quickly picked up the pace for the last few strides in the hope I beat my PB.

I got 33:57, with a chip time of 33:55, Sweet! :-), I can't believe I got a PB on that course which had over 700ft of climbing and very little flat. I defiantly felt like it was my kind of course, I really like those draggy climbs and constantly changing gradient it keeps it more interesting. I wonder if I could go much quicker on a flat course, it will be nice to find out as I would love to got sub 33mins this year, Musselburgh 10k 24th July, it's supposed to be flat so we will see then.