Evening races are tough. They take up pretty much your whole day, especially if you have to travel to get to them. With a 6:30 start, and packet pickup before 3, that was our day. We hit the expo briefly, then hung out by the lake for a few hours, just relaxing, then I was off to the start line. I got a brief warm-up, with some pick-ups, then tried to get a spot near the front of the corral.
That's one of the problems with races like this, the lack of seeding. If you can hold any kind of pace, you might end up having to fight traffic for the first few km's. Another (related) problem is the scholastic relay. Now, I'm all for getting kids into running, and exercise in general, but there's no reason for a nine year old to line up right near the front. They can't hold the pace. There was one little girl who lined up right behind the elites, sprinted off at the gun, and was so shot by the first incline (about 300m into the race), she was weaving across the road. Their coaches need to pull them to the back of the group.
My race went OK. I went out a little quick, but scaled it back to an appropriate pace, and was solid through 5k. Then things started to go a little south, and when I got into the bad stretch around kilometre 7, I had pretty much resigned myself to missing my goal of sub-40. It just wasn't there. I can't blame the ride this morning, my legs were good to start. I doubt that the extra push of the first km used up too much gas. It was the best I could do today. Just like the 3:31:26 plagued me for two years, I'll have this as motivation for my next effort.
Splits:
1 - 3:36
2 - 4:03
3 - 3:56
4 - missed hitting the button, swallowing bugs
5 - 8:02
6 - 4:10
7 - 4:08
8 - 4:16
9 - 4:59
10 - 3:25
Total: 40:35
It should be noted that the km 9 marker HAD to be in the wrong place. I wasn't going that slow, and my last km wasn't that fast. I would guess closer to 4:15/4:10 for those .
Official results: 40:40 clock, 40:35 chip, 33/1273 overall, 3/70 M30-34. I placed in my age-group (kind of a weak field), so I got a nice technical shirt as a prize. So that dampens the disappointment a little. Missed my time goal, got some hardware, we'll call the day a push.
Nice work! You placed in your age group, so I'd call that a success rather than a "push". Then again, my competitive standards have been scaled back this year to be in line with my available training time...
ReplyDeleteI definitely prefer morning races for exactly the reason you stated... I can get it over with and still have a whole day left to do stuff. If I'm not racing until afternoon/evening, then all of the time preceeding the race somehow ends up spent on 'preparing' for the race. The exception is races on weekdays when I have to go in to work anyways and thus don't fritter away the whole day.
I can't comment on your paces because, well, from my limited running experience they all fall into the "superhuman" category. I've come close, but never broken, 50 minutes for a 10k. I have to admit that reading your blog, I want to start running again. Cycling is still my true love, but running is so wonderfully 'portable' (I used to take my shoes to every conference I attended -- it's much harder to take a bike).
Anyways, rock on and thanks for keeping the fans fed with a race report.