Notes
Goal for this race was around 18:45 and potentially sub 18:30. Warmed up with L. for the first bit, felt pretty comfortable despite the cold weather. There was some wind from the west which would play a factor in the race. I knew GPS would be screwy so I had an idea of where on the course to check my watch.
First km was pretty congested, just tried to maintain a brisk pace and follow bodies. There was a little headwind leading up to Spadina but once I bridged Spadina overpass I was able to comfortably push downhill towards Wellington. First km of around 3:41 is pretty accurate. Heading along Wellington I made a concerted effort to stay with a group ahead of me and before I knew it I was passing them. I knew I was feeling good as this is a rare time that I was able to concentrate on runners up ahead and make sure they didn't get away. I checked my watch around the 2nd km mark and saw 7:22 so was happy I was maintaining pace. I continued making progress on runners up ahead leading up to the turnaround point. I had the wind behind me during this stretch and made an effort to push hard but at the same time I still felt comfortable enough. Hit the halfway mark around 9:18 so maybe had slowed a bit or maybe splits were slightly off.
Heading back into a bit of a wind I really started working hard. One guy had come up and passed me and again I made sure not to let him get away. I tucked in behind him and stayed with him all the way back to Spadina. We were both passing runners along the way. This is the best effort I have made in a race to trust my fitness and stick with someone that was going faster than my current pace. I hit the 3K mark around 11:06 so was still maintaing a very good pace. If there was a km where I did sleep a little it was probably the 4th km as I started tiring along the long Wellington stretch. Turned back onto Spadina and hit 4K around 14:58. At this point my goal was just to get over the Spadina overpass and take advantage of the tailwind and slight downhill home. The runner I was with took off and I couldn't match his pace but I did come across 2 other runners that really pushed me to finish strong. Breathing had been accelerated since about 3.75K and legs were really starting to turn to jello in the last 500m. I started counting my steps with about 350m to go with my watch at 17:17. Really gave it everything to get in around the 18:30 mark.
Don't know if I could have found another 3-4 seconds as I think the race I ran was just about perfect and the last 650m or so was run in the low 3:30 pace range I believe.
Had a couple of beers and then ran the long way home with L. Wasn't completely wrecked. Vaporflys worked out good.