Town and Gown yesterday and I proved beyond a doubt that I am not an intelligent athlete by any stretch of the imagination.
I said on Thursday that I would be happy to get under 43 but to be honest I was hoping to get much closer to 40 after a year of training like a demon (albeit a slightly lazy one) for triathlon.
I had a plan and it was a good plan. Aim to run the first five or six kilometres at 4.10 each and see how I feel.
When I checked my watch after 1km it read 3.50 so I knew I was going too fast and needed to ease off. At 2km It read 7.30 - 50 seconds under my target. While this may sound good, any runner knows that for every second you push too hard at the start of the race will come back to haunt you threefold at the end.
And so it was.
From 4km to 8km it was very hard going and people just flooded past me, including a chap from Oxford Tri who I knew I should be slightly quicker than. I hung on to him for the next few km girding myself for the sprint finish. A sprint finish is one thing I always have in my favour. with only 50m to go I am usually confident that no-one will be able to outkick me.
But on this occasion, as he and I entered the finishing straight (to be fair he didn't even know I was there), I had absolutely nothing and my attempt to sprint almost made me fall over/collapse.
Loads more people overtook me and I crossed the line feeling stupid and looking awful.
I manage 42.24 - so I can't be too disappointed I suppose but I know that I have a lot more in me.