Did the St Johns Ambulance 10K this morning in Hanover , a local race. This was the inaugural year but they really did a pretty good job at putting on the event. It was a 5K loop with 3 options , 5K Walk/5K Run or 10K Run. I wasn't sure what to expect today. I haven't done much in the way of speed work in what seems like forever. I had some muscle pain after last weekends PYP Race. Up until Thursday I was walking down the stairs backwards. Fridays lunch run was the only pain free run I had all week. I did the appropriate thing and resisted running on Saturday. I did commit one cardinal sin or running the night before having a massive dinner at Kelsy's in Owen Sound.... there was the Beer, Garlic Bread with Cheese, Garden Salad the a Fajita Feast , 5 of the best Sweet Chili Chicken and fully loaded. For Desert I finished off my wife's Steak and Mushrooms. It felt like I had just ate Christmas dinner!
The Race Plan was simple , get it under 45 minutes trying to do even splits. The even splits kind of didn't work out so good, it wasn't a flat course but no real big hills just enough to throw you off your game. The first loop averaged out OK , more or less hit the start finish at the correct 4:30 avg pace. 5K to go , no problem. That first K that was tough to start was very tough the second time around and I logged my slowest K of the day 4min47sec. Amazing how much bigger that 20 metre climb was the second time around. After 6K I had some work to do to to achieve my desired pace. It was tough but I managed then last 4Ks at a 4:32, 4:35, 4:24 and 4:27 pace. The only other 50+ Male Running was Ed from Hanover. Ed is a couple of years older then me and has been edging me out by a minute or two in the 10K distance. Right from the start of the Race Ed was 200-300 metres in front making for a very good target. The last couple of Ks I managed to close in on Ed and with 200m to go I was about 10 meters behind him and was going to launch a strike until I almost Ran over a little Girl on a Bike. Breaking stride at that point caused me to feel quite Nauseous so I geared back not wanting to be sick. No big deal , I just waved to Ed as he crossed the finish line looking back... maybe next time, it would have been interesting. Anyhow I had banked a little time and picked it up enough in the last few Ks to cross the finish line at an avg Garmin Time 4:31 pace. My Gun Time according to my Garmin was 42min33 seconds a new PB by 1 minute BUT and I do mean BUT the distance logged was only 9.4 km , 600 meters short!!!! OK I ran the tangents , on a really windy course over 10K maybe save 100 meters. The course was short but it didn't really matter because I was more or less on course for a 45min +/- 15 second finish which I was really quite happy about.
Got to love the little local races. I will refine the numbers when I see the results but I think there was 18 folks doing the 10K , overall I think I was third , forth or at the least fifth and I do know that I was second in my AG because it was me and Ed! Got a prize for the AG placement a Nathan Water Bottle , got to pick from the prize table twice , first time it was Tim's Double Double Chocolate Truffles then I got a really cool Toyota Ball Cap.
All and all it was a great day , perfect weather , nice venue , well run race and the result I was looking for.
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