Active Knowsley 5km 2015 Race Report

This was my second race within a couple of weeks, and another race which I'd completed before, so knew what to expect. Set in the luxurious grounds of Knowsley Hall (the ancestral home of the Earls of Derby) this 5km race was the first time I'd competed as part of a team.

Having cooked up some interest in work we had two 4-person teams entered, with my team including one of my best friends who I’d completed the MerseyTunnel 10k with a few weeks earlier. He’d never ran a 5k race before and so had no idea how to pace it, consequently he wanted to do his own thing. That suited me fine as I wanted to go for an ‘official’ sub 20min 5k.

The race started at 7.15pm on a very warm and sunny un-British summer’s evening. I wanted to head out fast to try and maintain a steady pace throughout.

The first half of the run I managed to complete fairly comfortably, and whilst a team mate had stayed with me for the first kilometre I was subsequently running alone – none of my ‘rivals’ had passed me at any stage.

Rather than helping me to relax, it did the opposite; I no longer had someone pushing me on to maintain my pace, which suffered slightly in the 4^th kilometre as my time dipped to 4:08. The last time I completed this course the same 4^th km dip occurred and meant I missed out on my sub 20min 5k. Would this time be the same?

I pushed on using the runners ahead of me to keep going and was pleasantly surprised when I saw the finish line approaching. A little dash to the end and I hit ‘stop’ on the Garmin…

..19:45, yippee! Officially back in the sub 20min club for me!

It was then just a case of cheering on the other 7 runners as they all came in. It turns out I get way too excited doing this and was soon bellowing each runner’s name to help them across the finish line (or scare them into thinking they were being chased by an axe murderer…)

My mate came in second out of the group with a great time of 20:53, very quickly (i.e. 2 seconds later) followed by our opponents’ first runner. The rest of the runners came in and it was fairly clear that my team was the winning one, but so made up was I with my mate’s time it really didn’t matter. “I’m so proud of you” I may have muttered more than a few times!

Final Race Stats

19:45, a time I am elated with, and a time that makes me feel like my fitness is returning, albeit slowly!

Garmin here
Strava here

Final Notes

The race was great, well marshalled and a nice medal for a very cheap £7.50. My only (slight) gripe is that the race wasn’t timed with a chip, all by hand, and so subsequently I haven’t got the final team times, but I can live with that.

Whilst we’d light heartedly gone ‘into battle’ with personal pride being the prize, it was fun and camaraderie which were the real winners (major cheese fest I know!).

Race Review: Active Knowsley 5k

The Active Knowsley 5k takes place in the grounds of Knowsley Hall – a magnificent state home with plenty of surrounding land to boot. A great tranquil setting for a 5k race!

Knowsley Hall: Not too shabby huh?!

Having run this last year and knowing the course I was really looking forward to it. It’s a fairly up and down course at times but enjoyable none the less.

After Sunday Morning’s Mersey Tunnel 10k I really wanted to try for sub 20 minutes to test out my fitness.

7.15pm sharp the race started and off I popped – the only competitor wearing my club’s racing colours, despite there being 3 club mates there. I was however, joined by plenty of Knowsley Harriers in contrasting red and white horizontal striped vests; I can only presume this was a club championship race for them.

I completed the first km in a speedy 3:51 through winding landscape, but on a tarmac-ed path which was best of both worlds! I slowed down for the next couple of kilometres to bring my 3km split to 12:04, so still on track.

Rain had started to pour down, that fine stuff that gets you really wet y’know? (Not the purple stuff – thanks Peter Kay) This was nice and cooling, but there was to follow a 20m elevation climb in kilometre four. Not a particularly daunting prospect but given my lack of speed and hill work something I struggled with.

Due to this I had to pretty much kiss goodbye to my sub-20 hopes as I clocked the penultimate kilometre at 4:18 (dang).

I was a bit annoyed with myself at this point for going out ‘too quickly’ as I was feeling the pace… Then came along a runner who decided to over-take me, so I thought I’d use him as a pacer – he was going pretty fast and was a fairly tall bloke, so I got in right behind him and tried to get into his slipstream (don’t I sound technical… I probably wasn’t in his slipstream or anything but I’ll take anything that makes me think I can run faster).

With 300 yards to go I was setting a pace to complete what would be a quick kilometre time; was I on for my sub 20 after all? Pacer guy and I (kind of rhymes) stepped it up a notch before turning a corner to the final straight and for the last 200 yards I absolutely killed myself in the sprint finish – my watch was counting to 20 minutes; 5 seconds to go 4 seconds to go…

I crossed the finish line…

I looked down at my watch….

20:05… DAMN!!!!

5 seconds quicker and I would’ve been sub 20 again!

Final Race stats

Time: 20:05 (The last kilometre, though a fast 3:43 wasn’t enough to offset kilometre four’s so arsed-ness)

Garmin here

A great race, nice and relaxed atmosphere with a small number of runners making quite an intimate, but competitive race.

Race bling:
 

Final notes

I’m not disappointed with my time. It would have been really nice to get sub 20, but my fitness is where it’s at, and I need to get back running like I was this time last year to get anywhere near my PB’s.

I’ll be taking a rest now and give the foot/lower shin problem I’ve had for the last month a chance to recover – it, and I, needs it!

Quick update....

So my running has been going ok, but I'm still feeling the effects a little from the shin splint / foot pain that has been troubling me for the past month or so.

I'm just trying to manage it at the moment as I've got two races coming up; the Mersey Tunnel 10k on Sunday, and the Knowsley 5k the Wednesday after.

Both of these races I have completed before, and I really like running them. The Tunnel 10k is an excellent course; it starts in Liverpool and goes through the Kingsway Tunnel which is a road tunnel under the River Mersey. It is a fantastically novel race and I PB'ed doing it last year. -A PB that still stands today (39:27 if you're interested).

The Knowsley 5k is set in the idyllic grounds of the state home Knowsley Hall. It's a fast course and very scenic, its also never too crowded so there's no cramped start line but still has a great atmosphere.

I'm really looking forward to them and will report back on completion - fingers crossed my foot holds it together :)