Notes
t2 was fine, and the run started with josh accomando blasting past me at what looked like 5:00 pace. I knew that since I'm out of shape, I had no chance of keeping up with him. tried to settle in at sub 6, but that pace just wasn't coming. after 1/2 mile i started getting some stomach cramps, which didn't help. pace slowed some and I figured it was just about game over for me, and I'd just try to run sub 7. right at the turnaround, a 20 year old kid caught me, moving a good amount faster than I was. I decided i'd try to stick with him, ran behind him for a bit and then pulled up next to him. we ran stride for stride for about a mile, on a downhill, I took a bit of a lead and gestured for him to come back up to me. he never did, and I never saw him again. from there nobody was in sight in front of or behind me, so i just kept the pace comfortably hard. to my surprise, this pace was much faster than the first half. finished fairly strong, despite having nobody to push me.
splits were 6:34, 6:49, 6:40, 6:20, 5:57, 5:57, 5:29 pace for the last .2. the course was a bit uphill on the way out and downhill on the way back, but not significantly so. if it was 5k, i would have just pushed through the pain at the start of the run, but i was too afraid to do that for a 10k. I need to learn to push harder at the beginning, knowing i can maintain a sub-6 pace. some fast bricks (or running occasionally) would probably help.
so not super happy with my result, I know i can go much faster, but I've been injured and unable to run, so I couldn't expect much. still a lot of fun. next year I come back in shape for the run, able to average 27mph on the bike, and hopefully having learned how to swim.