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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Yateley 10km Race 1 Report

My first 10km of the year was a midweek evening at my PB course. Based on the average of my 5km parkruns this year which were across different courses and effort this was extrapolated with my predicted time was 50:00, I had guessed about 53 minutes so a bit effort would be required.

There was a good few from the running club going so we car shared and went there in a convoy. After getting our race numbers and race chip there was the club photo in front of the new club flag.

I went for the a single layer top just the club running vest, as it was warm and I was planning for a faster effort. Before the race I had some of the isotonic drink I had with me leaving the remaining for the race as I would not have any water they had.

When we lined up due to the number of people there we are in the 60 minute area so would mean a lot of overtaking would be required.

The first 100m was on a school field with a narrow run section this prevented overtaking to many but is also this is way back to the finish. Once on the road I took the far side which I was able to get in to my pace without too many people in the way. Then some club mates went past and I tried to keep up with them for a mile but I had to slow down a bit but they were still in my sight ahead of me.

After two miles there was a bit of downhill section and a few bends which I seemed to be run quicker than the others around me plus I was taking more of a racing line on the route. This meant I was starting to catch the club mates up.

Just before the water stop at about 3.5 miles I caught up with one the club mates and thought I may have gone off to fast and not sure if I could maintain the pace but there was only 20 minutes left. As I had my own drink I went pass the water station without a break in my stride / pace.

The next mile seems like a long slog up a very slight incline and is always the mentally toughest part of the race for me. This time I only slightly slowed down from the last 2 faster miles and the same as the second mile pace.

When I got to mile 5 I started to pick up the pace even though there was a steep hill which I was cruising up overtaking people, it felt really good to do this. After a short recovery of about 50m of slightly easy running at the top of the hill I picked up the pace for the last few hundred meters  and when I reached the playing field I picked the pace up again overtaking more people in the finishing straight which felt good.

In the end my time was 47:17 which was a lot better than expected with an average mile split of 7:31. I think it helped having people to chase down in a friendly competition.

I was pleasantly surprised of my pace for this race and change in nutrition to have smaller sips but at every mile marker.

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