I have run so few races this year - my fewest for any non-pandemic year, and I’m yet to reach double figures. Due to this, Northolt 10K was to be my first and only 10K of the year having not done my normal Leicester’s Big 10K race.

Carmen was organising pacers, so she drove us over to Northala Fields for a little after 08:30. A lot had already been set-up, and there was already a queue for the cafe toilets - which were surprisingly open already, as was the cafe. We collected our race numbers first, and then went to the lock-up to get the bibs for the pacers.

I thought I could beat the queue for the toilets by going to McDonalds instead, but they now require a key code to use them. That would be something to remember when doing parkrun here in future. Whilst Carmen organised the pacers, I did a brief warm-up run, and then joined the queue for the start. Unlike previous years, there were no bagpipes leading the way - they’d been used for the two minutes silence in remembrance of those that died in the floods in Nepal recently. One of the local communities here had managed to raise £2,015 to support the recover effort. It’s only been ten years since they last had a tragic natural disaster - the earthquake that caused a lot of damage, even in Kathmandu. I’d planned on running in a t-shirt and rain jacket, but had forgotten to leave my long-sleeved top in Carmen’s drop bag, so was wearing one more layer than intended.

The race started at 10:15, heading straight up the hill to go around the back of the hills we’d do for parkrun, but in reverse. I managed to get up to race pace quite quickly along that trail, but I probably overcompensated for my slow start a little too much. I should know by now that runners always pay that back with interest.

I was careful on the downhill trail to the tarmac, as I know from parkrun that if you take that corner too tightly it can be a bit slippery, but managed it with ease. The course passes the cafe, and the start line, and then goes along the path by the lock-up and back onto the tarmac to leave the park. The first water station was in Mable Park, but I decided not to bother, and continued on into Rectory Park, just like I would for parkrun.

I could see maybe half a kilometre in front of me, maybe slightly more, were the race leaders. I realised if they were still that close, then I was probably going too fast. There was one runner I’d been keeping up with, knowing that when I’ve seen him at parkrun here in the past he’s usually a little slower than me so was sort of unconsciously using him to pace myself, but I hadn’t realised he’d been doing a lot of speed work over the summer, and had sped up considerably. He’s now faster than what I can now manage.

After the first lap of Rectory Park I realised I’d overdone it a little, and walked for a few seconds at the start of this lap. I took this opportunity to loosen my layers, as that lap of the park had felt very warm. On the second lap of the park I passed the 75 minute pacer first, and realised Carmen (the 70 minute pacer), wouldn’t be all that far ahead so I might see her on the run after all.

A few minutes later I caught up and waved a “hello” as I passed. I knew I would walk again at some point, but ideally didn’t want to until I was out of this park. I’d been keeping up with another runner for about a quarter of this lap, and had switched places with him a few times.

When I made it back into Northala, the lead runner was just leaving. I saw a woman in a burqa running not far behind him and I thought it was impressive that she was in second place in what must be very warm racing clothes. I hadn’t realised that she’d actually only just started, having started late, and was on her way out of the park for the first time.

I walked a little inside the park before I reached the turn past the lock-up, and then again twice more on the trail behind the hills. I was definitely more tired that I should have been for this stage of the race. The First Lady overtook me behind the hills, and then stayed in front of me for the remainder of the race. Four miles were done, and just two more to go.

I did try to keep running as much as possible, but found myself walking a few more times in Rectory Park. I walked a little after leaving it, and then managed to find some rhythm and determination to hold on now until the finish. When leaving Mable Park I had to stop completely when runners leaving the park for the first time were blocking the path. I couldn’t go around them as runners entering the park in the opposite direction were passing them at the same time. It was only a momentary pause, but I’d lost that rhythm I’d found - I ran forward a few strides, and then walked some more realising I’d started back too quickly. A few seconds of walking later I got running again, and sped up to a sprint for the finish. I finished 28th out of 317 finishers with a time of 42:56. So slow! Quite a few people commented that they felt it harder this year than normal - I suspect a lot of us have been impacted by a very warm summer making speed training more difficult.

I got a nice wooden medal (great work on that!), some water, a banana, and some sort of bag. I realised that not having anything warm to change into wasn’t great, and I’d probably lose body heat quickly now, so I found somewhere out of the wind to wait for Carmen.

Well done to Santosh, Nepal Run UK, and the Nepalese community for putting on another successful Northolt 10K. It's nice to see how it gets bigger and better every year.