A brilliant run at the Lordshill 10k the previous weekend saw Barry Dolman come to within 12 seconds of his PB of 36:54. That was set at Round the Lakes on Boxing Day back in 2022. After recording the time he did at Lordshill, Barry must have been feeling that he could be in with a good chance at the Saucony London 10k.

The route for the London 10k takes in some of the capital city’s most iconic sights, including Westminster Bridge, the London Eye, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Big Ben. As one would expect with a race in London, it’s fairly flat and fast as well and with such a massive field, guarantees there will be other athletes of a similar ability around to help runners push themselves harder.

Close to 13,000 runners were set to take part in the big showdown. It wasn’t the first time Barry had done the London 10k though. He ran it last year as well, when it was the Asics London 10k and he finished in 37:49 that day.

Another plus point about doing a race on the streets of London is that there tends to be a carnival atmosphere all the way round. There will be fans cheering the runners on everywhere they turn and live bands and DJs will also be on route to add to the surround sound.

The race started just outside Green Park. Usually pacing his runs really well, Barry went out reasonably hard, clocking a six minute mile for his first split. Quite a bit of that was on a slight incline as well which he then came back down on the second mile. That led to a 5:56 for his second split before he then faced another incline heading over to Soho. Then after that it was on to Covent Garden where Barry picked the pace up again to record a 6:12 for his third mile split.

Going through the 5k point in 18:40, Barry wasn’t quite on course for a PB but he often does run a strong negative split in races so it wasn’t out of the question. The fourth mile took him onto the banks of the River Thames and that bit was slightly downhill which enabled Barry to pick up speed. Clocking a 5:53 for his fourth mile, he now needed to continue in that vain to put himself in with a shout.

The fifth mile was along the banks of the River Thames and then onto Westminster Bridge for a short out and back. It was the out and backs and the turns involved that made it difficult to keep a good rhythm going though and that may just have cost Barry.

Going through the fifth mile in 6:10, it was then over the Christchurch Gardens for the sixth mile where there was yet another out and back with a sharp turn. Barry got through that in 6:10 leaving him with just the final fifth of a mile.

The finish was on Parliament Street and there was just enough time for Barry to amp the pace up slightly before making a dash to the line. Clocking a time of 37:38, Barry had come in 197th out of 12,926. He’d also taken 4th place out of 501 in the M50-54 category which was a really impressive result.

He’d gone through his first 5k at an average pace of 3:44 per kilometre and for the second half of the race he’d average 3:48 so there wasn’t much of a drop off. His average pace for the run overall came out at 6:04 minutes per mile.

It was a tightly contested race with Matt Sharp of Ryde Harriers in the mix for the race win. In the end he just got edged out of it though by Seyfu Jamaal of London Heathside who got over the line first in 29:41 and Jared Ward who took 2nd in 29:44.

Posting a terrific time of 29:47, Matt had to settle for 3rd place on this occasion but it was still a great result for him. The top three were well over a minute ahead of the next person to arrive and that was under 17 sensation Philo Germano who finished in 31:07.

11 athletes finished in under 32 minutes, underlining the high standard of running on show at the sharp end of the field. Christopher Newnham of Ryde Harriers finished 12th in 32:25.

Aubrey Frentheway was first female in a mightily impressive time of 32:51 which put her 17th overall. Under 17 star Vanessa Fraser wasn’t far behind, clocking a time of 33:24 which put her 26th overall.

Becky Briggs came 56th in the final standings with her time of 34:34 and that made her 3rd female.

There were a couple of Poole AC runners competing and they were Ann Deverill and Sue Griesser. They ran together, completing the course in just under 1 hour 25 minutes.

It was another solid performance from Barry, even though it didn’t quite provide him with the 10k PB he craved. It was still an improvement on his time from last year though. After the race there was a bit of carb replenishment for Barry, namely a few beers courtesy of Beavertown.

As is often the case, Barry attended the race with his mate Graham Pavett and he completed the course in 44:23 which put him 1,217th overall and 44th in the M50-54 division. That was a decent run from Graham, although not quite as quick as what he produced last year.

The following week it was time for Barry to start vamping up his training for the Sydney Marathon which takes place on 15th September. With three good marathons already under his belt, Barry knows exactly what’s required in training to get the best of himself so he’ll no doubt be ready to rock and roll when the time comes.