Adam Corbin knew he’d have to be absolutely on his game to stand any chance of matching his 10k PB at the Great Bristol Run
Feeling a bit behind where he was when he notched his 10k PB of 33:49 at the Eastleigh 10k in August 2021, Adam Corbin had worked hard to get in shape for the Great Bristol Run 10k. He did the Bournemouth Bay 10k in 35:26 and had registered a couple of quick Poole parkruns which included a new PB of 16:35.
His girlfriend had got him an entry to the race as a birthday gift and the plan was to combine it with a weekend away in Bristol. That meant they could have a nice break and do a bit of sight-seeing as well.
One of the main attractions of the Great Bristol Run is the vibrant atmosphere. They have a start line DJ and have various music zones out on the course. Then there are the post-race celebrations in Millennium Square afterwards. It’s a really fun event to be part of.
When it came to the day of the race, Adam was ready and raring to go. Blasting out of the blocks and ripping through the first mile in 5:18, he had really set a precedence. He then followed that with a 5:22 second mile.
There had been a couple of slight inclines which Adam hadn’t been expecting though in the first couple of miles and keeping his pace that high hadn’t been easy. It had taken a lot out of him. He started to slow down a bit in the third mile and after that his head was no longer in it. That made for an extremely tough second half of the race where he was hanging on as best he could.
Going through the third mile in 5:47, he then registered a 5:38 for his fourth mile. It was still of course very fast but it was significantly slower that his first couple of miles. There were a couple of inclines in the fifth mile and that put Adam down to 5:57. He was then able to lift the pace to 5:45 for the sixth mile.
After starting off very quickly, Adam suffered in the second half of the race
It wasn’t as fast as his Eastleigh time or his Egdon Easy 10k this time last year when he ran 34:05. It was still a brilliant time from Adam though and his 34:46 had put him in 29th position overall. His average pace for the run was 5:38.
It was a good result for Adam but he knew he’d gone off too quickly and had blown up and that was disappointing. At the end of the day though, he’d had the courage to roll the dice and go for it and sometimes you need to do that to find out where you truly are.
After impressing at the London Marathon with a time of 2:11:50, Chris Thompson had won the Great Birmingham 10k the weekend before in 29:27 and he recorded another win at the Great Bristol 10k. Crossing the line in 29:45 it was a fine run that saw him win the race emphatically.
Alex Carter of Team Bath was 2nd in 31:24 and his teammate James Reeder took 3rd in 31:37. Ben Kruze of Stratford-on-Avon was the only other man to get in inside 32 minutes. He finished 4th in 31:59.
Chris Thompson (middle) was the winner with Alex Carter (right) and James Reeder (left) of Team Bath finishing 2nd and 3rd
Gemma Steel was 1st female, completing the course in 34:09 which put her in 19th place overall. Katrina Entwistle was 2nd, getting to the line in 36:11 which put her in 44th overall. Ella Sharrock of City of Norwich was 3rd female in 37:19.
Gemma Steel (middle) was first female, with Katrina Entwistle (right) in 2nd and Ella Shamrock (left) in 3rd
The Netley 10k was on the following weekend and that was one of the Hampshire Race League fixtures which meant Adam wouldn’t have to wait too long before he could have a second bite at the cherry. He was planning on going out a little more conservatively this time and see if that approach could yield a better outcome. Not that his performance at the Great Bristol Run was bad though. It was still one most runners would have been absolutely overjoyed with.