I’ve had to manage my expectations of myself in recent weeks when it has come to racing. 

After having such a good start to the year with a couple of PBs, it’s been difficult to get my head around not being at that level. 

Hopefully, that’s only temporary, but I’ve certainly been guilty a couple of times of just expecting to run like I had previously without putting in the work. 

If I’m being kind to myself then there are justifiable reasons for that; it’s not down to laziness, it was down to an injury... but the fact remains I lost fitness and I sub-consciously expected it to return quickly. 

The race at the Grand East Anglia Run gave me a reality check on that score. It was a tough experience at the time but I’m grateful that it made me reset my expectations of myself. 

Since then, training has been more consistent and when I have raced, I’ve tried to go on effort level rather than a set pace that I ‘expect’ of myself. 

The third race of the Great Yarmouth 5M series felt like a decent run and provided an indicator for Monday’s race – the Hatfield Broad Oak 10K – of the sort of time I’m capable of. 

I went into the race thinking that I’m probably in around 40:30 to 41-minute shape. 

Having said that I didn’t exactly set myself up for success as we arrived a little later than we had hoped. This meant a ‘compromised’ warm up thanks to having to pick our numbers up before joining the queues for toilets. (A note to organisers of any race – please provide enough toilets for the number of runners you have – nothing stresses runners out more and affects your experience than not being able to do your business before getting on the start line.) 

The course at Broad Oak is bumpy – for most it feels like you’re running uphill or downhill and it’s quite difficult to find a rhythm as a result. 

I was controlled in the first kilometre but struggled to get my breathing right due to the non-existent warm-up I’d undertaken (my fault). 

The pace was feeling harder than I had hoped and a lot more difficult than the early stages at Yarmouth (where I had a decent warm-up). 

But, thankfully, I settled into a decent pace which was around the 4-minute kilometre pace. 

In the fifth kilometre you come back through the village up a hill and whilst the support is excellent through here, I knew it was about to get pretty tough. 

As you come out the village again, there is a drag that broke me last year. I stopped looking at my watch as I didn’t want to see how much pace I was dropping. 

My breathing was getting heavier and as we got up the hill, I knew I was going to have to dig in. Mentally, I haven’t been in a place to lean into that for a while so this was going to be a good test. 

I was hanging on for a couple of kilometres but the last part of the course is a really nice downhill. I just needed to get through to that phase. 

I felt like I was starting to red-line and had to fight back thoughts that this ‘is going wrong again’. 

Thankfully, when I got to the eighth kilometre I managed to pick it up a little and let the downhill do some of the work. 

As we came into the last 400m I looked at my watch to see if a sub 40-minute time was on (old habits die hard). Some quick runner’s maths deduced that it wasn’t - so I kept it as steady as possible on the home straight telling myself not to do anything silly and risk anything going ‘ping’ in the final metres. 

A clocking of 40:16 felt like progress – not massively by any means, but it feels like things are heading in a positive direction again. 

Eastern Daily Press: Mark Armstrong with his waffle reward after the Hatfield Broad Oak 10K

I celebrated with a waffle with chocolate sauce and ice cream – it was probably the highlight of the bank holiday weekend along with my wife, Alison, winning her age category in a time of 40:26. 

In the meantime, I’ll be trying to keep my expectations in check as I build up for what is hopefully a decent second half of the year and, most importantly, have some fun in the process.