My first race of the year took place on Sunday 4th of February, the Cancer Research London Winter Run 10k! This is a huge race with 20,000 runners around the streets of central London, so I was really looking forward to a good atmosphere.
It was a freezing cold winters morning, good temperature for running, but not so great for travelling to the event and waiting around before the start! Luckily, the event was really well organised, with hardly any queues for the bag drop or portaloos despite so many people being around. The start was also well controlled for an event with so many participants. The organisers went for a quite relaxed rolling start spread over 40 minutes, so whenever a group of 1000 or so runners had walked up to the start line, they were allowed to head off, avoiding any traffic jams in the starting pens.
We set off from Trafalgar square and made our way around the city, passing landmarks and historic buildings like the Bank of England. Volunteers were stationed every km, dressed as either huge fluffy snowmen, yetis or huskies, offering hugs and high-fives to all the runners! The cold really worked to my advantage as I normally overheat on a 10k run, and I could tell that I was managing to keep up a good pace.
The final km was a fun downhill sprint back to Trafalgar Square, the streets lined with tourists and supporters cheering everyone on. I crossed the line in 1hr 3min:59, a huge 5 minute improvement on my last 10k race!
All in all, it was a great race and I hope to be back next year!
Low Carb Londoner 
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