ASICS London 10K race recap

Over the years I’ve done quite a few races in London, including the London Marathon, the Big Half, Urban Rush, Richmond Half and the Tower of London Run. But there are also still a few races that I still haven’t done. The Asics London 10K was one of those. 

It’s also one of the races in London where you don’t have to go through a ballot to get an entry. You can just sign up and we picked up our bibs during the week at the Asics store on Oxford Street which took just a few minutes. 

We were in the last starting wave, but the starting waves were a bit improvised. Ours was to the side of The Mall, but it wasn’t that clearly marked. And the start is actually next to Green Park, so we actually had to walk through all the other starting pens to get to the start and that definitely took a while. 

This course has a lot of out and back parts, six to be exact, probably so they don’t have to close off too much of central London, but it also means you can see your friends quite a few times if they are running a bit in front or behind you. 

You first run down Piccadilly, then up and down Regent Street, then up and down Pall Mall, passing by Trafalgar Square, up and down Charing Cross Road, then on to the Embankment, up and down Westminster Bridge passing the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and up and down Victoria Street passing Westminster Abbey and finishing on Whitehall. 

After the finish they give you a medal and a t-shirt. I don’t like races who give you a t-shirt after the finish, because my size is never available anymore by the time I cross the finish line. I always get stuck with a big size that looks ridiculous on me. Why can’t you ask my size and give me a shirt when I pick up my bib?

About 17,000 runners took part and I did enjoy the route. The water stops were a bit weirdly located past the 6 kilometer mark and at the 9 kilometer mark. Now it’s only a 10K, but it is a 10K in July, so it was already pretty warm that morning, so they probably could have done a better job with spreading them out a bit more. 

Since we did a lot of sightseeing in the city the days before my legs were already quite tired and were not happy the first few kilometers of the race and it was also still pretty busy on the course at that point. But eventually, I found my rhythm. Waved to Carianne a few times on the out and back turns and apparently missed Stephanie a few times since I was too focussed on other things, oops. But I did see Luis and Stephanie cheering me on just before the finish line. I wasn’t super fit and it was also relatively warm, so pretty pleased with my time of 01:21:28 in the end. Could definitely have been worse. 

Not sure if I’ll do the race again since there are still other races in London and the UK that are still on my wish list, but would recommend the race. You don’t get to run along Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square, The Embankment and Big Ben all that often.