Times Colonist 10k

April 29th, 2012

Just a quick race update. This was my 10th year running the TC making it the only race I have run every year since I started running. Seeing that I am more focused on longer races right now and coming just two weeks after the Boston marathon, I didn't have huge aspirations on the day. Since I had run sub 33min earlier in the year at Cobble 10k, I was hoping to get close to 33min which meant running about a 3:18 pace.

During the first couple of kilometers I settled in and was initially on pace for around 33min with close to 3:15/km for the first two. While on pace, I felt that I was working a bit harder than I should have been this early in the race. I moved on and I reeled in a couple of quick starters. I had my eye on Ben Brzezynski just ahead of me who had just ran around 32:30 at the Sun Run two weeks ago. If I could keep him close, I could probably end of with a decent time.

The 3rd km was slower at 3:20, but not too bad and by the 4th I was back on pace. Unfortunately, I knew the climb up to Mile 0 was coming so maintaining that pace would be tough. Even though I felt that I was pushing pretty well and I did make some ground on those in front of me, I did slow on the climb somewhat, hitting a slowest km of 3:28 for the 6th km. I should have been able to gain some of that time back on the decent from the high point, but I still found myself behind pace. I didn't feel that I was really hurting, but I still couldn't I pick it up any more. Around 7km, I noticed Ian Hallam pulling off to the side ahead of me. I'm not sure what happened as Ian is quite a fierce masters runner.

While I knew I was off my goal time, I still pushed ahead feeling like I could get a decent finish. With about 1km to go, Kelly Guest was pushing hard to the finish and passed me. I picked it up a bit, but couldn't quite match him. I still ended up with a 3:18 final km which wasn't too bad finished in 33:30. This was a bit slower than I had hoped, but not a total disaster either. Kip Kangogo won overall with a 29:51 finish with Willy Kimosop just 14s behind. Ben ended up 23s ahead of me. Natasha Wodak-Fraser clinched the woman's win in 34:32. I was very pleased to see two of the runners I coach, Heather Afford and Larry Nylan both posted PB's.

Next Race: Elk/Beaver 50k.

Results.

Splits: 3:15, 3:16, 3:20, 3:15. 3:23, 3:28, 3:25, 3:23, 3:23, 3:18