Notes
A Goal for the race to get a 10K PB (38:44) even if the course is net downhill. Conditions were pretty good, hardly any wind, maybe the slightest from the east which helped along Richmond and Front. Warm up went ok, some Achilles tightness but nothing too bad. Start was delayed by 13 minutes which was a little too long but once I got going everything was fine.
Took it out somewhat conservatively but did want to push a bit more than last year. Continued pushing into the second kilometer and was happy to see the split improve. The rise up the cemetery at the end of the 2nd km was less arduous than I remembered so I was quickly able to get back into pushing the pace for the 3rd and 4th km. By the end of the 4th I was pretty much in full on tempo breathing and I could feel the effort starting to weigh on me, But the increased effort was reflected in the km split so at least I wasn't slowing down the slightest.
The 5th km is pretty flat so it has always been hard to maintain pace. Usually I would just aim for a 4 minute km but today I wanted to continue banking time so wanted to at least be able to hit around 3:55 or so. I put in a good effort and was happy to see the result. Crossed halfway at 19:08 so knew if I could take advantage of the rest of the downhill I'd finish with a good time. Even though I was tires at the halfway my legs were able to push through and respond to the easier gradient of kms 6 and 7. By now I knew I just had to get about 6 seconds under 4 minute pace for the rest of the race to get the PB. The problem however has always been the 8th km along Richmond. Again I wanted to just hit under 4:00 but by now my legs were feeling incredibly heavy and having problems responding the way I wanted them to. Breathing also started getting a bit erratic.
I ended up running the 8th km in 4 flat which was a bit demoralizing as I knew those last 6 seconds would be tough to come by. At this point I started just thinking about breaking 39:00. The turn onto Peter however gave me a new boost of confidence as I was able to pick up the pace on the downhill and the downhill ended up being close to 500m, much longer than I had remembered. But once I hit Front I started struggling again, really finding it hard to pick up my legs. At this point it was just a matter of concentrating on the people in front of me and trying to stick with them. Finished the 9th K in 3:56 so I knew I just needed another one of those to get the PB but my legs were getting really floppy. I figured if I could just keep them turning over until I hit Fort York then I could push the last 500m.
Was just counting down the meters until I hit the Bathurst bridge. Made a little surge to get over the rise and then pushed hard coming off the bridge. Luckily I didn't rig up and was able to find one last surge of energy. Saw the clock flip over to 38:00 and then unleashed a sprint. Had just been passed by 2 girls but was able to pass them back in the last 50m. Ended up 10 seconds under my goal due to this last burst as last 200m were at 3:15 pace, and last 400m at 3:26 pace.
Both calves seized up right after the race and Achilles was quite sore for a couple of hours after. Iced it when I got home and by the evening it seemed to be recovering ok.