Well done Ruth, and what a good time for someone who hasn't done it before.

I tend to mix it up, you all probably are aware of my famous early morning runs which i really enjoy, and the weekends I tend to run more sociable hours with the exception of Monday nights which is club night, then again I love variety.

I lot of this is around a mental approach to the run, if you feel rubbish at the start and still feel rubbish well into the run then you will have a poor run. I sometimes feel rubbish at the start of a run especially on some of the early mornings but after a mile or so I tend to focus and go for what I had planned to do, sometimes more.

I'm not into all of this postive zen like thinking rubbish and getting into the 'zone' but I do have a seige like mentality to complete whatever challenge I set myself, and those challenges are realistic, small steps come to mind.

Ruth Your last post reminded me of a story I heard in the Midlands a long time ago:

A businessman talking to a customer: " I heard your wife has taken up cycling?"

Yep - she does about 5 mile every day

Fantastic... you must be really pleased?

Ecstatic me - by the end of the week she'll be 35 miles away!

Ruth I agree with everyone here, don't get carried away at the start, in fact postion yourself at the back of the pack and take it easy. You will find that you will overtake those at the back. The 10k distance to those that run regularly is a mixture of speed and endurance and you need to concentrate on the endurance bit, whereas 5k is speed, half marathon is more endurance than speed and marathon + is pure endurance.

You will get round as race conditions do tend to push you along more than you would in training, good luck and let us know how you get on.

Laura has it right there - your goal is to complete the distance, don't worry about time. Take a look at the spread of times on a few 10K races and you'll see that they range from the super speedy 30 mins to well over 1.5 hrs.    

And there is no shame in slowing down, or even taking a little walk if you need to, as the recovery might actually mean that you get through the race faster than if you hadn't slowed down / walked.

Good luck - you will be fine and will probably surprise yourself!

Hi Ruth

I have a 10km in 2 weeks and I know how you feel. I am not a natural runner and have to work at it. I have found that slowing down my pace helps me go a little further each time, and even when I want to stop I really take it down to a very slow pace just to keep going. I measure my route each time and add a little bit on each time - not much maybe an extra road  but it really gives you a boost if you do it! When I did my first 10km run last year I  had never run 10 km before the race the most I had managed was 7km. I felt really nervous at the start thinking I would make a fool of myself but the adrenaline on the day keeps you going and you will surprise yourself ! I finished the race not in any spectacular time but that wasn't the point for me !!!  Good Luck