An absolute beautiful morning. Cam & I left home about 6.40am, and made our way to Richmond from Hoppers, arrive 7.20ish. Go over to the registration table and check Cam in (I'm already registered), his coach has strongly suggested that he only run the 5km and then do a 20 min cool down.
Cam & I go thru our normal routine, which is very similar, starting with a 10 min warm up along a bike path away from the course. Then some light stretching and a couple of run thru's. Some more stretching, flats on and do 3 more faster stride thru's.
There isn't a cloud in the sky, so we both decide on racing with our sunnies on (proved to be a very good idea). It is a great morning, not a cloud in the sky, NO wind and I reckon it is 16 degrees at 8am.
On the front of the starting line alongside some other guys who all seem to be fairly quickish. Cam has one obvious opponent (triathlete), he is hoping for a mid 16 & Cam is hoping for high 16s or low 17s.
The minute silence as per all Sri Chinmoy races and then we are off. Cam & the other fast looking 5 ker are leading and I am about 10 back, the first km is a 'bit' quick (3.56) but it feels easy, but I know I need to bring that back to the other side of 4 min. The course is 1.25km out, tight u-turn, cross the start/finish line (2.5km), then keep going for another 1.25km, another u-turn and then hit the start/finish again, that's 5km, 2 laps of this for me and 3 laps for the 15km guys.
I have run here twice before in the AV Half marathon course, so it feels comfortable and I know the bends and the little slight hill. I get to 5km in a great time of 20.36, feel great, 12 months ago I couldn't break 21 min flat out!
I concentrate on keeping my pace and want to remain in the position I'm in 5/6th, running just in front & sometimes behind another 10k runner. CR RunningOnEmpty is sitting in 3rd spot and looking good. At the second last u-turn the guy slightly in front of me, makes a mistake and turns early, he then back tracks and fixes his error, but now he is behind me by 10-20m. But sadly he gets me with just over 2km to go and he is looking stronger than me (in hindsight I should have guts it out and tried to stick, but...) and moves away slightly. At the last u-turn he encourages me to fight on, I'm about 20-30m behind him, but haven't given up, just before the 1km to go I started to pick it up, I worked as hard as I could and cam home with a 4.04 for the last km. With Cam & RunningOnEmpty (finished 2nd in 10km) giving me encouragement I cross the line with a BIG PB, time 41:38. Very happy!!!
Cam in the 5km, didn't have a good one and finished 17:58, I wish I could have a bad one and finish under 18. He finish 2nd overall & 1st in the U18s.
My previous fastest for 10km was 43:13, now 41:38. Great splits, 3.56, 4.06, 4.14, 4.12, 4.09 (20:36 @ 5k), 4.09, 4.11, 4.19, 4.19, 4.04 (21.02 for 2nd 5k). A bit more effort on the 7-9km and could have finished under 41:30. I think I finished 6th overall. Very happy with this result and now I can sit down and work out how I can break 40 minutes.
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