Notes
This was my first race since June 2010 and and after taking a 1.5 year hiatus and re-starting running in May 2012.
My warmup was about an 18-min jog with 2 race pace strides.
I tried to line up within the first 100 people, since that's where I figured I would end up at the end of the race. But the start area quickly filled with many people and I had 3 grannies in front of me. Oh well, I wasn't going to freak out, since I knew most people would start out too fast anyway, and more so with the downhill start.
I had no idea really how to pace myself, since I haven't raced in so long and I wasn't sure how badly my recent 10 or so day break would impact me. I studied the splits from my previous 5ks last night, but I didn't gain much insight. So I just hoped that I would tag up with the right racers. I figured go out fast the first mile, maintain focus the second, and then hang on for dear life. Anyway, I set an arbitrary goal of sub-19 and sub-18:30 as a dream goal.
1 km - It was a downhill start heading down to the seawall. I knew I wanted to start fast, but I didn't want to go out too hard and blow my race. I thought I may chase this blonde in a local club uniform, but she was a tad faster so I let her go. Considering it was a downhill start, I think I did pretty good here. Near the end of this km, I had a guy in a full on leprechaun custom with music blaring out of his jacket. It was funny when the music stopped and his ipod or whatever spit out his km split and pace.
1 mi - There was a prize for fastest mile, so there was a mat there and I went through in 6-flat.
2 km - Just after the end of the first km, there was a tight turn onto the seawall and this is where I felt boxed in a few times as the path is narrow and there were a few groups running together. At this point, I thought I might try to pace off a high school team, but they ended up being too slow and I passed them. Blonde was still in sight, but a little too far off to catch up. I felt like it was still too easy. End of second km and lucky's ipod gave us our split and pace again.
3 km - Not much going on here. Still running with lucky a bit behind me and just trying to stay focussed, increase the effort level, and get some room as it was still a bit bunched up. Got a final split from lucky's ipod and finally dropped him.
4 km - Really put my head down now and started to push while others were fading. Split came in the same as the last km, but noticeably more difficult. Getting some room to roam around now and blond still in sight.
5 km - After the 4 km marker, there was another tight turn to head back up to the Stanley Park Pavillion. I just kept on pushing, but shortly after the start of this km we started to head uphill back up to the Pavillion, then it continued as a slight uphill. I thought this race was flat, what idiot put this hill here? I thought this hill was really dumb and considered jogging it in, but I looked at my watch and realized that while 18:30 was out the window, I could get reasonably close if I pushed it. So I ran really hard up the hill while passing 3-4 runners, then pushed with all my might once it flattened out and the finish line was in sight. I passed a couple more runners into the finish and I felt like my lungs were going to collapse, so I must have been doing it right. I'm surprised the last km was my fastest split.
I didn't really know what to expect out of this race, other than to push myself, get in a good workout, and try to get some feedback on my training. I feel like I left about 5-10 seconds out there. I'm sure 18:30 would definitely been doable had a pushed harder the second km and if I didn't have to contend with that hill at the end. Don't get me wrong, it's wasn't super-steep or anything; just long, gradual, and annoying. I'm just glad I didn't completely screw up the race.
With today's race, I now know that sub-40 10k should happen, and 38:30 is not a pipe dream.
Next race: April 7 10k tune-up
Goal race: April 28 10k