Another year, another Derby 10K. I love this race, it’s my home 10K and there’s always a great atmosphere!

After taking part in RED January I’d had a pretty good start to my running year. I wasn’t breaking any records, but I was physically and mentally in a better place than I had been for some time. Then I hit a wall, I quickly got out of the habit of running everyday and found it difficult to find a new routine during February.

Then came March with its snow, ice, freezing temperatures. I’d planned to run the Great Northern 10K on the 18th March but the organisers took the decision to postpone – with good reason, the weather was atrocious. It’s an open road race and I would’ve been worried about running in those conditions.

I decided that I had to get back into a routine before this race and to kickstart my preparations for the Simply Health Great East Run, a half marathon in Ipswich, in September.

I’ve definitely rediscovered my love of running over the past few weeks – I even went out for a run in the rain! Although I knew that I wasn’t going to get a PB today, I’m really proud that I ran all the way with no walking breaks. Seeing family along the route, high-fiving small children and spectators giving out Jelly Babies definitely helped my motivation and energy levels.

22 days until my next race, the postponed Great Northern 10k with HUUB Events. I’m going to do some speed work and start following the training plan that I’ve generated on the Great East Run website. I want to knock a bit off today’s time if I can; I know that my PB of 1:06:18 is a little out of reach for the moment!

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