Race time 15:00, weather warm 6°C/43°F with light drizzle. Course - muddy woodland trails of 2 x 5k. Weighed my trailshoes on the kitchen scales to take the lighter pair, more a psychological boost than anything. 2nd run in the series, arrived in plenty of time for a 15 min warmup with some short strides and to compose myself before the start. My normal 10k race tatic is to go out as hard as I can and try and hold on but last time here I faded in the 2nd half poorly and became discouraged after being overtook several times. This time I aimed for negative splits and placed myself further back in the start line. Another factor was a large number of runners for a 5,2k team race who where running the one loop, I didn't want to get sucked into competing against them. The rough garmin 1k splits as follows:
| 1.flat/downhill |
2. gradual uphill |
3.steep uphill/flat |
4.flat/downhill |
5.downhill/flat
|
| 3:35 |
4:00 |
4:14 |
3:47 |
3:53 |
| 3:41 |
4:08 |
4:05 |
3:44 |
3:38 |
Started well and felt comfortable and started gradually overtaking uphill, I thought I might have problems getting past runners but by weaving and running on the rough ground just to the side of the trail I got past with less than anticipated problems. I still felt good and strong and more like a hard workout to the 5k point where I really started pushing it. Past this point it had thinned out but occasional knots of runners had formed which were more difficult to get past. I was gaining in confidence using the uphill to overtake and focused on reeling in each runner one at a time. The last 2k was hard, here the trail narrows down and it was difficult to get past. There was a last knot of 4 runners, I got past two but the other two ran side by side blocking me. I was frustrated, I haven't got a great kick and the last 120m to the finish line was wide. With about 500m to go I'd had enough and just forced my way between them. They were both hard on my heels and the last 120m was to the puke point.
Afterthoughts: My first negative split in a race for a long time and a better result because of this. I gained confidence during the race for every runner I overtook and it kept each surge going as I knew they would try and react. The last two runners I overtook finished 1 sec after me and both were in my age class. Next time I would like to try and run the 1st half slightly harder but still leave enough for a good hard 2nd half. In contrast to last time I enjoyed the race and I am much happier with my performance. | 