Wednesday evening saw the running of the second of the three Yateley 10k races in the series, and like the first one, I ran it barefoot.

I'd had a bit of a sedentary two weeks building up to the race following the onset of the early signs of the dreaded top of foot pain (ToFP) that cropped up during my piggies hill training session on 22 June. With only a single tabata rowing session done between then and the race I went in the race very relaxed and rested with my foot feeling good too.

At 7:30pm we were sent on our way and I paid special attention to my pace. I went into this race wanting to crack 45 minutes and intended on doing so by keeping a constant pace that sat in the 4:20 min/km to 4:28 min/km range. This plan worked beautifully. I managed to remain disciplined and didn't get caught up in the excitement of the start of the race too much and managed to keep my pace more or less within this range right up until the 8th km. This included the particularly stoney tarred section along Reading road between about 5.5km and 7.2km which this time I chose not to try and avoid.

I suspect I could have kept this pace up beyond the 8km mark had it not been for what happened next... just after the 8km mark the pain on the top of my left foot returned, and with a vengeance. It was pretty damn painful, but as I'd got most of the way round, there was no way I was going to stop now - I'll probably regret this later. I quickly found it wasn't as painful if I turned my foot inwards slightly and almost rolled over my big toe (could the cause of the pain be due to a slightly outward pointing left foot?) so with my slightly adjusted gait and slower pace I headed for the finish.

Turning into the field entrance I glanced at my watch and noticed I was still on course for a sub-45 10k, so I floored it as best I could, passed a couple of people and crossed the finish line with a new PB: 44:43.

Pleased as punch I handed in my timing chip, grabbed a water and a choccy bar and headed back to the car. The pain in my left foot starting to really sink in now too. Impressively I had my official results SMS by the time I got back to my car too...

Yateley 10k Series 2010 Race 2 Results

So all in all, I had a great run, except for the onset of ToFP at 8km, but that's incidental really as I'd managed to set a new PB and still had a great time. Still no sign of any photos from this or the previous race though - I'm starting wonder if they had an official photographer this year.

Now I'll have to see what happens with my left foot over the next few weeks. Hopefully it'll recover completely in time for the 3rd and final race in the series on 4 August.