I went on holiday, I came back. I might write about that some other time, but this morning I ran the Bupa Great Yorkshire Run, a popular 10K down in Sheffield. Amazingly it's only my fourth 10K ever, and just my second 10K race of this year. As a result of my break from work-induced break from running over the summer I hadn't done anywhere near the amount of training I'd like to do going into a 10K. Although I'd not done anything since getting back from Denmark, I had managed a token 24K of training during August and so wasn't going into the race completely empty.

The trains weren't going to get me to Sheffield on time, so the night before I planned my journey and timings meticulously like it says to do in all the running books. It all went to plan - I got to central Sheffield via the tram in plenty of time and, once there, found the race to be very well organised. Things felt a lot less crowded and a bit more under control than at the Leeds 10K I did in June, and the facilities at the start appeared to be better too. Milling around at the start, there weren't many Fetch tops in evidence (that I could see) although I did meet a couple of lovely incognito Fetchies up at the start line who came up to me and said hello.

Given my recent performances, I was aiming for 66 minutes. 60 minutes would have equalled my Leeds 10K performance, but I benefited from a lot more training going into that race - not to mention being a few pounds lighter.

I got a good, uneventful start thanks to the organisers separating us up into four colour-coded groups. I kept a good pace, ahead of my target pace, and settled down reasonably quickly. Things started to get tricky around the 6K mark, which isn't surprising considering that I'm most used to running 5K races. Thanks to my own stupidity I went into the race under-hydrated and I started to get a bit too hot, despite taking on some water at around 5K. The overhead water-spray thing that appeared a bit further along the route was much appreciated, especially as the clouds broke to let the sun shine. WHERE HAD YOU BEEN THE REST OF THE WEEK? WHY NOW? To avoid overheating I tried to slow my pace, although my Garmin seems to think I did no such thing. Naughty Garmin.

With less than a kilometre to go, I checked my Garmin which told me I still 800 metres left. That was 800 metres too many as far as I was concerned, but at least the end was in sight. About 100 metres later, there's this guy encouraging us enthusiastically over the loudspeakers. He helpfully tells us all that only 800 metre remain. Naughty Garmin! But, to further dispirit me, about 100 metres after that the sign for 800 metres appears. I tried to focus my annoyance at this situation into running steadily to the line, but in the end I just had to keep it together as I was far too hot and I knew there was a hill coming.

I'd learnt about the hill from reading the race discussion on Fetch, and I'm so glad I knew about it in advance. In the event it came about 600 metres from the end. When you start at the bottom you can't really see the extent of the hill, and even when you're half way up it's impossible to see how far it continues. Sadly, it lasts almost all of the remaining distance and it's a tough one. Having not stopped running since the start, I flatly refused (no pun intended) to slow to a walk and managed to keep going all the way to the line. Some runners were being physically sick at the top of the hill and I realised just how tough it was.

I kept going right to the line and came home in 62 minutes. I think my target was overly pessimistic, but I was only 90 seconds off my Leeds 10K time so it's definitely a good result for me in the circumstances. With some hard work I can definitely get under 60 minutes this year. My Garmin thought I'd ran 10.2K. Naughty, naughty Garmin!