Polaroid Dumbarton 10K - 2/6/11

Wal - what a crap race I had tonight! I wore my Timex Ironman Heart Rate Monitor and although it gives me accurate heart rate readings, I stupidly ignored them and to my cost. My heart rate was up as high 176/177 bpm for long periods and even rose to 179bpm a few times. My splits were still on at the 5K mark (18.39), but I was severely stressed by then in the hot conditions. I was at 26.58 at 6K instead of 26.06 and this really 'broke my resolve'. My heart rate would not go below 176bpm and by the 7k mark I was walking. I then started running again, but stopped again at around 7.8K and walked for around one minute. I noticed at the 8K mark that my time was 32mins something and decided then to try to run the last 2K with more speed. I managed to catch some of the runners and finished in a disappointing 39mins 39secs. I need to learn to 'run more intelligently'.