19,465 runners. including the likes of race winners Sir Mo
Farah and Steph Twell, joined four th May to take part and complete the twelfth
Vitality 10,000.
The 10K road race starts on The Mall with the course
following a clockwise route around the City of Westminster and the City of
London. Along the way runners pass by many of London’s famous sights including:
Admiralty Arch, Nelson’s Column, St Paul’ss Cathedral, Mansion House, the Bank
of England, the Old Bailey, Somerset House, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament,
and Westminster Abbey before finishing right outside Buckingham Palace. Runners
assembled at Green Park ahead of the race under grey skies, but come the 10am
start the cloud broke up and the course was bathed in warm sunshine. Once
across the timing mats, runners were greeted by cheering crowds lining the
route as well as drumming bands and a choir.
Like the race’s big brother - the London Marathon - the
field was split into waves starting at ten minute intervals. It was in the
second wave that three of the GRC contingent set out onto what turned out to be
some quite congested London streets.
With the course narrowing in places, causing runners to
bunch up, it proved extremely difficult to get into any kind of rhythm with
what appeared to be a significant proportion of the second wave having a rather
optimistic estimate of their finish time. Due to the zigzag route some runners
were forced to take, finish times were likely to be somewhat slower than hoped
for.
First to finish for GRC was Paul Davis in a time of 46:18.
Starting the race with no realistic chance of bettering his 10k PB, Paul was
still a little disappointed to be just over six minutes off his best. Next
across the line in 47:26 was Stewart Pick, also missing out on a PB but
enjoying the occasion and pleased to have spotted Sir Mo at the start.
First lady home for GRC was Caroline Davis in a time of
49:34 which was within 30 seconds of her PB. She blamed dodging around slower
runners to make her GPS race distance register over 10.2k! Marie Boddington ran
in the colours of CLIC Sargent. Currently participating in the club’s Couch to
5K programme after a year off through injury, Marie entered the race to try to
push her distance running a little. Finishing in a time of 1:30:16 she said: “I'm
disappointed with my time but very pleased to finish after suffering very badly
from the pollen from the surrounding trees. It's a great event and well
organised.” Paul added: “a really enjoyable race, perfect for those missing out
on the full marathon but wanting a taste of the big race atmosphere, with the
added benefit of being able to enjoy a post race stroll through the capital with
correctly functioning legs!”
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