On the 10th May I made my way down to Victoria Park in London to experience my first 10k race. I was taking part in the We Own The Night Woman's 10k event hosted by Nike and ELLE magazine and it was one of the best things I've ever experienced.
I arrived at the park after around a 15/20 minute walk, signposted along the way and with marshals in place from the nearby stations to direct you to the location. Once at the park I headed straight to the bag drop to get rid of my excess kit and get ready for the race. There were no queuing at the bag drop, I simply headed
over received a wristband and then another matching band was attached to my bag. I then decided to explore the area and take a quick look around the tents before the warm up was due to begin. After a lively and fun warm up it was time to head to our pace groups to await the start of the race.
This was my second official race of the year, I participated in a 1/2 marathon on 27th April (post on that to come) and I was very excited to experience my first 10k. I placed myself in the orange band pace group which was around a 1 hour 5 minutes predicted finishing time. I really wanted to finish in under an hour but placed myself in the 1:05 pace group as I haven't yet run a 10k sub 60 minutes.
When it was our groups time to head to the start line I was extremely excited. After a countdown the klaxon sounded and the race began. I started my watch and headed off. I knew not to go out the gate too fast so kept my pace steady and made sure not to get caught up in everyone racing off. I passed our groups pace maker before I even reached the first kilometer marker and knew straight away that I wanted to beat the 60 minute mark. On the second lap of the park, around 7/8k, I passed the 60 minute pace maker and realized it was going to be close as to whether I would finish under the hour. With 600m to go I quickened up my pace and knew that it would be close. As I crossed the finish line I looked at my watch with it reading a time of 59:43. I was so excited to see I had finished under the hour mark but wanted to wait until I had my official race time. When I checked, official time it read 59:40 and I couldn't have been happier with that as my first 10k time. It's given me a great starting point and one I'm now eager to beat with more 10k events in the future.
We Own The Night was an incredible experience and one I will definitely be participating in again next year!
