A plod along the prom: Aberdeen Disability Sport 5k Race Report

In retrospect I'm actually quite pleased with last night's 5k performance down at the beach. I was gutted at the time to see 25:02 on my watch at the finish (no official times yet, but it wasn't chip timed or any fancy stuff like that). If the official time comes up lower I will definitely be claiming that one, since I started at the back, and as ever with these races, both start and finish lines seemed fairly nebulous concepts. (And I clocked 5.05km on my Garmin too.)

Anyway sub-25 or no, it's over 30 seconds off my previous 5k PB which was set less than a month ago at the Dunecht Dash, and given that it's only 11 days since the Edinburgh Marathon (about which the less said the better) and yesterday was one of the hottest days I can ever remember round here (a bit cooler by 7.30 in the evening, admittedly, but still very warm), I don't think it was too bad a result. And it has boosted my WAVA up to over 62% Geeky, moi?

Most importantly, I did manage to salvage some pride by finishing ahead of the wee girl in the club vest who kept coming past me for about the first 2.5k. (And I do mean a wee girl. She was about 9.) And yes, there was a point when I thought, here I am, struggling to get past a 9 year old, maybe my running is not quite as fabulous as I would like to pretend. But mainly, good for her, I wish I'd been doing that when I was that age instead of waiting till I was over 40!

A nice race on a lovely evening, which (unlike some despite their claims), really did cater for all abilities with several people still coming in around or after the 40 minute mark.