Notes
Everything came together almost perfectly this morning, which enabled me to run what was possibly the best race I’ve ever run. I had just the right amount of hard work and rest leading up to it combined with perfect conditions for racing. Temperature was right around 50F with cloudy skies and almost no wind. The course was a flat, fast, certified loop that finished on the Marin College Track. The race was the 5th leg of the 2008 PAUSATF Grand Prix series. Ironically my time of 38:35 was only good for 2nd in the 60-64 age group and snapped a 15 race win streak for me in this division. The winner had won national 10k championships on road and XC within past 18 months. He ran 36:57 this morning. I’ve never been so happy to finish 2nd. My previous best was a 39:22 that I ran 2 months ago, so this was a major breakthrough.
Splits were 6:02, 6:14, 6:08, 6:13, 6:18, 6:20, 1:20 – 38:35. After 7 straight days of easy runs on the grass my legs were feeling fresher than usual. That and the fact that I was really up for this race is probably what caused me to go out too fast. In most recent starts I’ve run even or slightly negative splits, but I think I’ll keep this one anyway :)