The oldest running race in Europe and a Saturday morning on Argentinská

On Sunday 27 September I ran the 130th Běchovice–Prague race, and since October I have been leading the Saturday running class on Argentinská. Here is what the race was like, what from it applies to every 10K, and what we do in the class.

A 10K that has been run since 1897

Běchovice–Prague is the oldest road race in Europe, ten kilometres from Běchovice to Žižkov. It's also the Czech national 10K road championship.

If you have never been there, you expect a flat course. It rolls from the very beginning. The first small climb leads up to the first kilometre, on the third kilometre in Dolní Počernice comes the first proper climb, and in Hrdlořezy comes a long one-kilometre hill up to Tábor. After a steep descent you are at the lowest point of the course, 209 metres above sea level, and from there it climbs almost all the way to the finish at 277 metres.

This climb is called Hrdlořezák and its 68 metres of elevation fall into roughly the last two and a half kilometres.

2,701 of us finished. My time was 41:45, good for 161st place overall. I ran for AC Sportguides Rožnov pod Radhoštěm.

The hill shows up in the numbers

My average for the race was 4:10 per kilometre. The ninth kilometre, which is Hrdlořezák, took me 4:38, the slowest split of the whole ten. The last kilometre was back at 4:02, and on the slight downhill into the finish I picked up the pace even more.

On a rolling course what has worked for me is letting the hill take a few seconds and taking them back as soon as the road levels out.

What applies to every 10K

The most common mistake on a 10K is starting the first two kilometres faster than your training allows. It is tempting, because it feels easy at that moment and people are flying past you. On Běchovice you pay for it exactly on Hrdlořezák, where you can no longer hold the pace and the rest is survival.

The second thing is consistency. What gets you ready for a 10K is mainly heading out every week at the same time, even when you don't feel like it.

How to pace a 10K and what happens when you run the first kilometres too fast, I wrote about in the article about the night 10K. A few days before Běchovice I wrote about what to do in the last week before the start, in The last week before a race.

The Saturday RUNclub

Since October I lead the FF RUNclub every Saturday at 8:30 at Form Factory on Argentinská. We start with an easy jog and dynamic stretching, then comes technique, and the main part is intervals that everyone runs at their own level. It's enough if you can run a few kilometres without stopping.

I love running and it has always been close to me. I used to coach running groups in Moravia and led an athletics club. What gave me the way into the RUNclub and the motivation for it was combining running with fitness, which is what HYROX is about.

How to sign up and what to bring is on the running club page.