Run For Health 10K - Walkerton Ontario - September 25, 2011

Did the Run For Health 10K in Walkerton this morning. The day didn't start so great. I was feeling quite tired not really feeling like running let alone race today. Some of my better race days have started this way so I went through my usual routines arriving at the race an hour before it started. Before I knew it I was running down Grey Rd 4 heading East out of Walkerton. The 1st K of the race was dead flat and I did it in 4min19 seconds , sort of holding back a bit. The next K was a 50m gain in elevation as we left town. I concentrated on keeping the breathing in check and didn't bother to check pace and managed to complete the climb in 5mins4seconds much better then I expected. In the third K there was a couple of out and backs before we headed North out of town. I concentrated on picked up the pace and recovering my breathing finishing the third one in 4min31 seconds. Going into the 4th K I looked at my Garmin for the first time and saw an average 4:36 pace. My goal today was to get it under 45minutes so I had a little work to do but with what goes up comes down so I felt confident that I would be successful. The 4th K was pretty flat and I completed it in 4min30sec knocking the avg pace back to 4:35 ...heading int he right direction. The 5th K finished with a small climb and I logged a slightly faster time finishing it in 4:27. With a 5K race to go I was starting to feel pretty hot as we turned West heading back towards town. I was slowly closing on another fellow that was fading a bit. When I passed him he challenged me for 20 or so meters before giving up the position. Following this guy for a bit hurt me a little and I logged a 4:32K. With 4K to go , 4:35 avg on the Garmin I knew it was time to dig a little harder and pick it up. I didn't want to get to the final K and have to make up all the time on 50 meter drop in elevation. It was getting really hot at this point but still manageable. I finished the 7th K in 4min20 sec and the avg pace had ticked down to 4:33. I finally felt like I was on track and continued to push hard logging 4min19sec and 4min21sec in the 8th and 9th K. Going into the lst K the avg pace had ticked down well under my minimum 4:30 and I knew I was going to achieve my goal. After dropping back into town we headed West on Grey Rd 4 again for the last few hundred meters. I was closing in on a fellow about 10 meters in front and started to make a push but then I felt really nauseous so I decided I wanted to finish the race standing up instead of down on all 4s so I backed off and cruised in finishing my last K in 3min52sec.

I finished the 10K in 44min14sec finishing 10th out of 53 participants, 9th out of 24 Men and 3rd in the 50+ AG. There was a cute moment when I received my 3 in AG Metal. The Announcer declared that he was going to take up running because I looked like I was 25 years old!