Notes
I love the Eastside 10k! I think I've been telling people it's my favourite race in town ever since the first edition 3 years ago. Many complain about how hilly it is, but I consider it to be more of a gently rolling course that requires you to run smart in order to race to your potential.
I won my age group last year and was third 2 years ago. I knew it would be tough to place again this year, so I just focussed on running the best possible 10k that I could. I think my splits were around 18:50/18:40 last year, and this year I was targeting anywhere between 37:30 and 37:00, so my goal was to run around 18:40 and 18:30 or faster.
The race starts with a gentle downhill for the first km. I tell everybody not be more than 10 seconds faster here - take advantage of the quick start, but still let the body warm up a bit. I was feeling really good in the opening kms, and considered catching a ride with one of my Thursday night workout partners when she flew by, but I figured she was just going way too fast and let her go (turns out she had such an awesome race and I'm so stoked for her).
The kms were just clicking off like I was out for a hard tempo run. I couldn't believe how great I was feeling and hit the 5k at 18:39, where the Thursday night coach was yelling out times and encouragement. This is where I picked it up last year, and I tried to do the same thing here. I was passing people, but slowing a bit. I'm guessing it was partly because of the course profile, and partly due to fatigue. I hit the 7km mark I was still feeling good and optimistic. We did a few turns and I hit the 8km mark still feeling good but I knew it would be close if I wanted to PR so I picked it up a bit. I think I counted 4 people that I passed in the final 2 km. Once I hit that 1 km to go marker I was on a mission to get to that finish line as quick as possible. I was using people in front of me as targets, but I didn't really care if I passed them. Just like the start was a gradual downhill, this was a gradual uphill back to where we started, so I'm always amazed at how much kick I have going back into the finish at this race. I probably shouldn't have that much of a kick at the end of a 10k, but the photos show how hard I was working. It was great to hear the Thursday night coach's voice again, repeatedly yelling my name, but I didn't even see him. I ran the last 5k in 18:48. It wasn't as strong as I wanted, but still pretty good. I just need to work on keeping focussed in kms 6-8.
I moved up 8 places in the final 5 km.
I spoke with the national race director yesterday, and sent an email to the local race director today. They've asked the timing company to look into my time. Whether or not it gets changed, I'm comfortable claiming this as a 37:24 and a 2-second PR. Even the top finishers had 1 or 2 seconds between chip and gun. I seem to be to only one where the times are dead on.