Decent 10K race for me yesterday. Almost missed the start when a closed motorway junction resulted in the most enormous diversion known to man so my planned 3 mile warm up became less than a mile.
As with the rest of the country conditions were very wet but not too much wind and the temperature was good for racing so no excuses there.
Started about 5 rows back and when the starting gun went about 200 people went passed me in the first mile! The race is crazily competitive. The lap pace showed about 5:40 after half a mile which is much too quick for me so I easy off and eventually got the mile split down to 5:57. Still my fastest split ever in a 10K but not too far off my planned 6:10 pace.
The next two miles are slightly uphill so they were a bit slower - 6:15s. My HR was in the right zone and the effort felt OK so all to plan so far. Went through 5k in just over 19 mins.
Mile 4 is a bit downhill and this felt nicer, eventually ticking of a 6:06 mile. Just two more fast miles and my time could be sub 38.
However I started to pay for the fast start here and had to dig in to keep the pace respectable. I normally finish races strong but this time I was getting overtaken now and then and didn't seem to be able to do anything about it.
Mile 5 is also slightly downhill so a 6:13 was a bit slow but not disastrous.
I increased the effort in the last mile as more people came past me and my HR was up near 95% of max. but I could only manage another 6:13. After an age the finish straight finally came into view and I managed a reasonably strong last 400 m at 5:50 pace.
A chip time of 38:03 - about 20 seconds faster than my time on the short course last year so I'll take it. And finally I'll have a decent 10K PB on Po10.
According to McMillan Running my 24:10 HM in January was a better performance but whatever, maybe I paced that one better.
One more week now before the taper
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