Notes
Today was the first 10k I'd run without excuses since last year's HBC 10k, where I'd run 38:51. Well, more or less without excuses. I'm in marathon training, so I haven't done much in the way of specific 10k preparation - lately it's been striders once a week and a tempo run every 3rd week or so. Plus, the extent of my taper was substituting yesterday's scheduled tempo run with an easy 8k. So I was curious to see what I'd do.
Based on - I'm not sure what - I decided my goal would be to break 38:00, which would be a decent improvement. That meant running 3:48 or faster splits - not an easy set of times to calculate on the fly, so this morning I dutifully wrote out 3:47/km splits for each km, giving me 10 seconds of breathing room.
The Toronto course is nice out and back flat course with one gradual hill around 2.5k (downhill) and 7.5 (uphill - yuck).
I did a decent 20 minute or so warmup, got to the start line with about 5 minutes to start time, only to find out that due to a crush of registrations, the start time was going to pushed back by 10-15 minutes. So much for being warmed up. At least with all the bodies around me and the sun beating on my back I wasn't cooling down.
About 5 or 10 minutes after the wheelchair athlete start, we were off. First couple kms were a bit slower than target pace, but then I was under from that point on.
Garmin splits:
3:52
3:49
3:45
3:45
3:45
3:39
3:42
3:46 (that uphill)
3:43
3:37
After about 7k it was pretty much a solo time trial - the person ahead was too far away to catch (although I narrowed the gap), and the people behind me weren't gaining (no audible volunteer clapping after I passed), which isn't as much fun as having people to pick off/challenge you.
Final chip time was 37:22 - a PB by 1:30.
21st overall; 20th man (I got to watch the winning woman break the tape - she was the one I couldn't catch) 6th in my age group.
Funny thing is, I don't feel all that wiped from the race today. I probably could have gone out harder and run harder throughout. With some speed work and a bit of a taper, I figure I could drop to at least sub 37 - maybe better. Unfortunately, that race will have to wait until next March - my next target 10k.