A 10k local race on a bitter cold afternoon. The temperature was about freezing point and I was unsure what to wear for the race. I opted for shorts, long sleeve top and gloves, handing my warm overclothing to my wife just before the race start. It was a small handful of runners that wore shorts but once started I quickly warmed up and in the end rolled my sleeves up. The race was sponsered by a local wine producer and the start was from the winery. A fast course, pretty flat with 2 x 5k loops, the 1st km was narrow for the amount of runners and controlled the initial pace. Through town it took some tight turns with cobblestones underfoot, but there was a good loud band in the center to cheer us on. The timing was by bibchip, my first experience of this. Instead of a mat you ran through gates to give the start and finish time, the start reminded me of penned cattle waiting to run out into the field.
For the first time in a race I used my garmin to record the km splits which were: 3:49, 3:39, 3:37, 3:38, 3:59, 4:02, 3:56, 3:43, 3:48, 3:56. It was a certified 10k course, the garmin measured 10,1 with a last 100m of 3:43 pace. Looking at this I should have pushed harder in the middle kms and I would have wished for a faster last kick, I was just hanging on at the end with ragged breathing. This was a surprising result for me, I set myself up to PR in Oct on a flat 10k course, I tuned up and tapered and failed miserably, now in a workout race I've done far better than I anticipated.
After the race I drank a couple of warm fruit teas in the finish area and it started snowing.
My poor wife was chilled through, so we headed straight back home leaving the lure of free wine tasting, Bratwurst and Glühwein in the winery behind us. I've just found out the result now on Sunday afternoon. There was a total of 569 runners for the 10k, I finished 28th overall, M40 4/88 and got a 2 sec PR. My one complaint from the race is they had 5k walkers that started 5 mins after the runners. This meant they were blocking the way in town on the 2nd loop. Why do they walk in clumps? | 