Notes
It was cold and raining during the warmup. In the race the rain slowed down to a drizzle, so it didn't feel cold anymore. It was actually ideal weather for racing.
My plan was to hold back a bit as I knew with the missed training, if I went out at normal race pace, I would crash and burn. And if I had anything left, I would do a gradual pickup and run hard the last mile. Ideally I thought if things went well, I could break 34:00 minutes (6:48 pace).
I totally nailed this race according to plan. Once I got going, I was hoping to keep all miles under 7:00, including the hill mile which I did in 6:52. Last mile I picked up as planned and ran about a 6:10 mile as the race is short. The only downer is I passed Brian Mohan in my age division on the grass with 100 meters to go. I moved too soon because he beat me right in the last 10 meters. I am not used to getting out-kicked, especially by someone i my age group. To be fair with limited running for 6 weeks, I have no speed right now. Still, I didn't like it!
So I couldn't ask for a better result running a minute faster than I thought I would, This has given me confidence that with 6 weeks training, I have a shot to beat last years time at Doonhamer 10K next month!
Splits: 6:38, 6:47, 6:52, 6:44, 6:01 (6:09 pace adjusted)