My 2019 goal of "get the Strava 10k badge each month" hit a bit of a stumbling block in June when half way through being one of Those People who run to parkrun, run parkrun, then run home (total of 12km) I fell and sprained my left ankle.  And then stupidly thought I could 'walk it off' and kept going - managing a 31min parkrun, oops.  It didn't hurt that much until I took my shoe off - and then I couldn't walk for a couple of days.

So that ruled July out. I probably could have managed August but instead I was lazy and did barely 10k total all month.

And so to September, and the Highnam Court 10km run. Back on track with a race I've done twice before (in 2015 and 2016).  I wasn't expecting a great time (see aforementioned laziness) but was looking forward to it anyway as it's such a lovely location.

Sadly, the course had been changed a bit and despite the addition of an extra mini-lap, when I crossed the finish line my Garmin reported 56 minutes for just under 9km.  Disappointing.  Lots of others had recorded a similar distance, and there was a fair bit of grumbling going on.

Other differences this year - the race was in the afternoon rather than morning, and the 5k was done completely separately.  There certainly wasn't anywhere near as much of a bottleneck at the start as last time, which was an improvement.

I'd like to say I got a September 10k done later in the month but nope, still being lazy...  However I've entered another race at the end of October which is UKA certified, so it had better be the correct distance!

tags: Gloucester running