After having raced the Eastside 10km while sick 4 weeks prior I was happy to have a opportunity to race feeling healthy and with 4 more weeks of training under the belt. I talked a little bit about my last couple months of training in my last blog post about Building Blocks and running consistently has been a big part of that.
The week leading up to the race had some good quality sessions and on the back of a strong workout on Friday night and a easy weekend I was looking forward to lacing up the shoes.
In the end this is race report about a 10km so not much drama or excitement to be had but have given an overview of how I approached the day for those interested in what I do the day of race.
Pre Race Routine
My plan going into this one was not to race others but have a good solid effort with view to taking hills (both up and down) easy and focussing on rhythm for the rest of the race.
Had a good relaxed warm-up which is now the same warm up I do before all my structured workout runs which is;
- 2 to 3km Warm-up run (super super easy - shuffling nearly moving backwards type of easy)
- Followed by drills and strides (I focus on a race pace feel for strides)
- Before a race I ensure getting a longer recovery between strides than sometimes with a workout.
This takes me about 30 to 40 minutes so normally start this about 45 minutes prior to the race start as it gives me time to have a chat and say hello to people I may know racing.
Racing
So then it is time to go. Race morning had promised a good dumping of rain but apart from the odd sprinkle the rain held off for racing. The seawall is a beautiful place to run but racing the east section involves a lot of turns and it can be a bit slippery with moisture.
First km looked to find my own rhythm which meant yoyoing off the back group for the first 500m before ending up pushing the pace a little. after about 2km comes the Burard bridge and as per my plan I backed off on this section both up and down and at as the course returned to the seawall I was in 4th place.
Lost concentration through some of the twisty bits and a group of 5 or so was starting to form at 5km at which point I focused on nice turn over and ended driving ahead of that group. Kirill of West Van Run fame (he is race director) had already established a nice gap at this point after pulling away on the Burrard Bridge. So at this point I was in 2nd and just focussed on having a nice strong run. Could see Kirill in the distance but realistically I was not going to drop a 3 min/km to drop the gap so focussed on a nice strong run. Had to push a bit on the last 100m or so to dip under 35 minutes and was happy to that and have a good solid race and end up with 2nd place.
Based on GPS the course showed a little short (200m) but with all the turns I likely trust the course measurements over the satellites on this one.
Goals for this One Achieved
My goal was to run sub 36 so sub 35 was nice. Negative split as well which bodes well for current fitness. A few things to take form this like really concentrating on form and relaxing after a couple km's and the need to keep on working on my leg turnover.
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| M30-39 Podium - Managed to get my AG Win (Photo Credit Stephen P) |
What Next
Next up is a few weeks of solid training, potentially a cross country race before jumping in the MEC Marathon on Nov 16th which starts about 500m from my house. Idea for this race will be to have a solid run and hopefully not bury myself too much, but will know a lot more about the plan for that in the coming weeks.
Thanks
Thanks to Granville Island and the Vancouver International Marathon Society for putting those race on that supports the Vancouver Food Bank. Also thanks to all the sponsors including Tenderland Meats from the Granville Island Public Market that were kind enough to supply me with a gift card for post race. Also thanks to the volunteers who stood out there on a cold holiday Monday.
Thanks to Powered by Chocolate Milk, Forerunners North Vancouver and Speed Theory for their continued support.
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