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A tale of two cities (and the races I ran in them!)

Before returning to the UK for summer, I'd be slogging away on my absurdly hot and sweaty training runs in Dubai, dreaming of ice and ice cream and all other things ice related... And of racing under more running-friendly conditions while at home.

Those who have known me for the whole four years I've been running will know all about my love-hate relationship with the Great North 10k in Gateshead - A race I never seem to enjoy yet am always perusaded to enter. As well as this, a very good friend of mine kindly arranged for me to run one of my all-time favourite 10k races in the beautiful city of York.

Although the results aren't massively different (both pretty rubbish by my pre-injury standards), my feelings throughout these two races differed massively. In this post I shall compare the two...

Preparation: 

GN10K: Sleeping well. Stretching plenty. A couple of runs in the UK to readjust to the conditions.  
York 10K: Ten days no running, but lots of other activities. Irregular eating. Too much mead. Jet lagged within an inch of my life. Sleep deprived. 

Leading up to the race:

GN10K: 'Ugh. Not this again. Why do I do this to myself every damn year?!'
York 10k: 'OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY' 

At the start line: 

GN10K: 'Just cruise around, take it easy, enjoy the atmosphere, no pressure on the results. Have fun!'
York 10k: 'Just cruise around, take it easy, enjoy the atmosphere, no pressure on the results. Have fun!'

During the race: 

GN10K: 'This route sucks. I feel dreadful. Legs don't want to play.  Going super slow and still burning out really quickly. I hate this. Is it over yet?!' 
York 10k: 'I LOVE THIS ROUTE THIS PACE FEELS LOVELY HI FIVE ALL THE SMALL CHILDREN SMILE FOR THE CAMERA I BLOODY LOVE RUNNING!!!!!' 

At the finish: 

GN10K: 'NEVER. RUNNING. AGAIN.'   
York 10k: 'AGAIN! AGAIN!' 

Results:

GN10K: 1:18:40, close to tears, exhausted, nothing left in the tank, wondered why I bothered with this sport.
York 10: 1:16:45, effortless, happy, plenty of energy left to give, was ready to PR on a 2k swim the following day, fell in love with endurance sport all over again.   

 Isn't it odd how, on paper, I should have been feeling much more ready for the Great North 10k, and yet it felt like a disaster, whereas I was SO not physically ready for York and yet felt and performed better to almost two minutes improvement in less than a month? And yet my approach to the races was exactly the same. 

I think what I have learned from running these two races is that sometimes your mind does play tricks on you!! And that the Great North 10k just isn't my race! However am very glad to have run both and learned a little more about myself as a runner, and will be looking to focus on events I truly enjoy next summer, for the sake of maintainingself confidence in my running capabilities. 



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Great North 10k

  
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York 10k

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