So the weather may have lived up to the dreary forecast expectations, with rain commencing as the starting gun went, but what a day Sunday was!
From collecting my t-shirt on Friday afternoon, right through until the end of the race, the weekend was thoroughly enjoyable.
In hindsight, I didn’t realise how many people would be on site on race day, between the children’s races, full 10k participants and spectators, the atmosphere was absolutely buzzing!
With a Rocky style warm-up lead by the team at Active Swansea I was raring to go by the time the gun went at 1pm. Having timing pens at the start line meant there was no battling my way to the front, and was able to set off at a speed similar to that of my start line companions.
Plodding through puddles for almost an hour may not seem like the most fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon, but hearing the crowd clapping and cheering really did give me goosebumps, especially at the halfway mark. A little bit of upbeat music from Heart FM at the 7k point really gave me the push I needed when my legs began to tire on the home straight as I counted down the metres left.
With thanks to the 50-minute pace runner, I managed to beat my PB with an official chip time of 51:48 by keeping him in my sights throughout the course!
I’m absolutely thrilled to have been part of such an enjoyable event and will definitely be signing up again next year, but this time with a new goal: sub 50 minutes.
In the meantime, I shall keep racking up the miles as I look to complete my first half marathon next year in my next running challenge.
It looks like I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the race, as it’s already been nominated once again for the best 10k in the UK at The Running Awards! If you enjoyed it as much as me, you can vote for the Admiral Swansea Bay 10k here 🙂
If you loved the race, be sure to give it a rating on Facebook too!
Hope to see you all again on 16 September 2018!
Georgia x