I did the first Great Birmingham 10K this morning, along with a few people I know and work with. It’s been raining all weekend, but luckily stopped for most of the race. The Sun even came out at one point. I finished in a disappointing 52:16 according to my Garmin, but 56:33 according to the chip timer which is even weirder.

Normally they’re only out by a couple of seconds. I’ve checked the Garmin and it has the right distance and time, no auto-pauses or anything. Obviously I’m going to say the 52 time makes more sense, it was at my normal pace for the past few weeks.

I’m now sitting on a sofa, trying to avoid putting my feet on anything as they are both one giant blood blister on the underside. My shins, which have been killing of late and stopped me training for the past fortnight, returned in full force not long after the half way point. This wouldn’t be too bad except I had to drop my pace for the climb back into the city centre which always puts me on an odd footing and seems to exacerbate it.

But none of that matters. I’ve done another 10 km.

And at the end of the month there’s the Sutton Fun Run to look forward to :)