Boy, that was tough. The weather was perfect for the run today and I managed to get round in 71:47, a full 13 seconds inside of my target (289th out of 1396 finishers)! The start and first mile was pretty congested, and then it got better from there. The last mile was tough, real tough and with what seemed to be dodgy mile marker placement, seemed pretty long….

For info, here’s my semi-accurate mile splits (miles in brackets) from my new Polar watch/mileometer thingy! - (1)7:07, (2)6:50, (3)6:57, (4)6:56, (5)6:57, (6)6:53, (7)7:09, (8)7:12, (9)7:20, (10)7:10, overrun 0:51. Average heart rate was 175bpm, pace per mile was 7:11.

Oh, and here’s what I just posted on the Runners World forum…

This was my first CP10, and after publicly setting myself a target of 1:12:00 on this forum, I smashed this time by……

…..13 seconds, thus finishing in 1:11:47. I’m really happy with that time, and my early challenge for next year is to take it under 1:10. Lets see what I write here in 11 months time in the runup to the race.

I saw Shiraz on the way round (was that a PB she got? I think so) – it was good to see a familiar face.

Marshalling was excellent and I tried my best to thank them when I had half a spare breath!

Maybe its the time of year, or just the length of race (I normally do 10k’s), but there didn’t seem to be that many supporters towards the finish. This wasn’t a problem, I just appreciated the clapping etc. more and more.

A good friend of mine (in addition to Mrs Funkin) came to support me and after the finish my friend said “When I saw you right by the finish I didn’t think you’d be looking that tired”. He’s not a runner - need I say more!

Lovely shirt at the end, and I took advantage of the free stretch from the Amida people, although I must admit I nearly fell asleep whilst lying on the ground!

After a well deserved pint I can now well and truly relax and enjoy my Sunday evening.