York Millennium Bridge 5k
Working in York, I’ve done this race a couple of times before and it’s fairly fast with PB potential. It’s only about a mile or so from where I work so it’s quite handy to get to. After arriving and parking up in good time, I warmed up but also managed to catch a bit of the finish of the junior race which is over 2.5k. I’m just glad these youngsters weren’t in our race as I’d have probably been well and truly shown up. There are certainly a lot of potentially good distance runners in the Yorkshire area. Not surprisingly, I didn’t encounter too many familiar faces, the only one being a lass who used to work at the same place as me, whose daughter was doing the junior race.
The race got under way 2 or 3 minutes later than planned and at a brisk pace. There were a few minor collisions and I caught the heel of the woman in front of me after she had to brake a bit sharpish herself. As we got to the 1km mark, I checked my watch, but it was at this point I realise that I’d pressed the wrong button, so rather than start my stop-watch, all I’d done was change the display to time of day. I asked the runner alongside me the time and he told me it was 3:55, so I thought I’d just carry on and try and keep that pace up. Just after the 1km mark, the race slowed up a bit as the course was a bit narrow with a couple of tight bends and corners to negotiate, not helped by the field still being relatively close together.
Thankfully, the pace picked back up again soon after. As I had no idea of my exact time, I thought I’d just push on and stay with or even go past as many runners as possible. I think in the past, I’ve made the mistake of not just getting sucked in to starting off to quick, but also in the second half of the race, slowing down when those around me slowed down. I made a conscious decision to up the effort level in the second half of the race, including pushing on up the incline of the Millennium footbridge. As we made our way off the bridge, just before the 4km mark, there was another small footbridge to negotiate, then, it was a straight-ish last 1200m or so, so time to really get the foot down and leave nothing in the locker.
Getting to the finish line and having no idea of my time was a bit weird. I asked the lad who finished near me what his time was “under 20 minutes, I think. Yeah, 19:50.”, he replied. As I’d never done under 20 minutes for 5k, a point not lost on Eddie Meehan who takes delight in reminding me of this as much as possible, I was feeling quite chuffed. However, I wasn’t going to get too excited until I’d received official confirmation from the marshals. Thankfully, this duly came shortly afterwards with my time of 19:49.
Although York is 50 miles from Teesside, I’d recommend this race for those looking for a 5k PB. It usually takes place mid-August, so maybe those with families could make a day of it, perhaps.
Results can be found on the attached link about halfway down the page: http://www.yorkacornrunningclub.org.uk/?cat=5