Caerphilly 10k

Yesterday was the 5th annual Caerphilly 10k, of which this was my third time taking part in this race.

Although there are a few hills on this course, there are also some long flat stretches also, but with temperatures around the 26°C mark, this years event was looking like it could be a tough one.

I met up with other runners from Caerleon and in discussion with them, they all had the same plan as me in that we would just be running to complete the course without collapsing from heat exhaustion. So I planned to run at about a 9:30 min/mile pace.

CRC Caerphilly 10K participants

The race began as usual, with a slow start due to the numbers of people in front of me, then after a couple of hundred metres, we hit the first hill which took us into town and the field had spread out a bit by then. It then heads downhill past the front of the castle and a very long, flat stretch before hitting a shallow hill which seems to go on for a very long time before flattening out again. The route then heads back into town with one last steepish hill before the final downhill leg to the finish line.

There were two water stations and usually I wouldn't bother taking water for a short 10k run, however with this heat I felt it was prudent to do so. I grabbed a bottle and took a few sips and poured a little over my head, and instead of just throwing the bottle away, I held onto it and continuously took sips and poured a little more over me until I wasn't far from the next water station.

I think this helped me because although it was hot out there, I didn't feel the heat was affecting my performance any, and my pace was better than I expected.

My official time was 57:42 , which I was happy with considering the conditions.

Caerphilly 10k route

My pace/speed in minutes per mile

My heart rate zones

This was the first time I'd had a chance to try out my new Polar M430 watch, which has built in wrist based heart rate monitoring. This is the first time I've used a heart rate monitor and I new that for my age, my maximum heart rate should be about 163, which as you can see from the graph above, I exceeded a little, although my average was 158, so I spent the whole race near enough in the red zone. But hey, I felt fine and didn't feel like I was over exerting myself.

Next Sunday is the Swansea half marathon, which I wasn't intending on running because I am running in the Wales half marathon at Tenby on the 9th July but, one of the ladies at the club who had registered for this event, still has a niggling injury and was offering her place, so I decided to take it. So next Sunday I will be known as Samantha 😉. I am going to treat this race as a training run and not going for a specific time.

But before then, the club is holding the first of four 5km time trials on Tuesday, which I believe are used to see how individuals performance improves and points are awarded which go towards the club championship. Then instead of doing the club speed session on Tuesday, I'm intending on doing a 10k run.

Wish me luck for Sunday eh.