One of over 4,000 runners participating in the RunThrough Fulham 10k, Emma Biggs was keen to see what she could do on the fast, flat course
In London on a regular basis for work, Emma Biggs loves a good 10k race to get stuck into and test herself in. In fact, she’d done nine of them already, some in London, some in the Bournemouth area.
In August she ran the Regents Park 10k in 1:02:55. In September she did the Hyde Park 10k in 1 hour 39 seconds and the Greenwich Park 10k in 1:02:32. They were both RunThrough events. She then did the Round the Lakes 10k at the end of the month in 56:17.
In October he stepped the distance up a bit in the Weymouth 10, which she completed in 1:49:36. Then a couple of weeks later she competed in the New Forest 10, getting round in 1:09:12.
In November she ran in the Wessex Cross Country League, doing the men’s course at Bryanston School, which was longer than the women’s one, at 9km. She was back on familiar ground for the RunThrough Fulham 10k though and that was actually on a very fast course, attracting a very high standard field.
Omar Ahmed of Birchfield Harriers was in the line up, as was Jonathan Escalante-Phillips of Cambridge and Coleridge and Joshua Grace of Aldershot Farnham & District. Seyfu Jamaal of London Heathside was also racing, as was Alex Milne and a couple of other strong Hercules Wimbledon runners.
Harry Smith was gunning for a sub 30 time
Oluwatosin Adedeji, who won the Run Bournemouth Half Marathon and finished 11th at the Great South Run was also in action, as was former Bournemouth AC man Harry Smith who won the Lightning Bolt 10k at Langley Burrell in 30:09. He’d been gradually getting closer to a sub 30 minute 10k time and it felt like only a matter of time before he cracked it. Could he do it at the Fulham 10k?
The Fulham 10k course started and finished at Eel Brook Common before heading round the outside of Stamford Bridge – the home of Chelsea Football Club. It then goes around the centre the centre of Fulham before looping round Parsons Green and back to Eel Brook Common for the finish.
Emma Biggs (2167) had done several of the London based 10ks
With a tendency to start off quite near the back of the field, Emma Biggs ended up getting held up a bit at the start of the race which made it difficult for her to find her rhythm.
Emma got round in just under 1 hour 2 minutes
Completing the course in a chip time of 1 hour 1 minute and 59 seconds, Emma finished 3,357th overall and was 1,141st female. That was a fairly decent effort from her.
Emma was 1,141st female
At the front of the field, it was between Omar Ahmed and Jonathan Escalante-Phillips and it was Omar Ahmed who shaded it by a second in the end. Joshua Grace was third in 29:20, with Ian Crowe-Wright of Brighton & Hove taking fourth in 29:32.
Harry went off at a blistering pace which he went on to maintain pretty well
Starting off with a 4:39 split, Harry Smith then went through the second mile in 4:38. After that he registered a 4:44 for this third mile and went on to maintain a 4:45 sort of pace over the second half of the race.
Harry finally secured the sub 30 time he’d been chasing
The course came up slightly long but Harry raced through the last third of a mile at 4:35 pace to get over the line in 29:40. That put him in 7th place in the overall standings, just ahead of Seyfu Jamaal.
It was a great moment for Harry as he’d finally breached that 30 minute 10k barrier. It was quite some achievement and one that he’d really worked hard for and wanted badly. Needless to say, he was over the moon with the result.
11 runners got in in under 30 minutes. Oluewatosin Adedeji finished 16th in 30:20. 29 athletes finished in under 31 minutes and 52 in under 32.
The weekend after the Fulham 10k, Emma had a 10k race double, with the Bournemouth Coastal Ten on the Saturday followed by the Boscombe 10k on Sunday. That was sure to be a testing exercise for Emma managing the efforts back-to-back.