Last weekend I took part in my first serious event for the fall: Takashimadaira road race. I was nervous as my training had had many interruptions, but looked forward to the 20 km run as I knew a pb was at reach.
The course was not new for me as I had ran this event last year as well, ending with a disappointing performance (last year’s report here). Good, flat, 5 km loop with kilometer marks on the 3rd, 4th and 5th km. Only problem here is the weather. For some reason it is always hot and sunny and very windy between the 4th and 5th kilometer. This year was not the exception.
The goal time was to run in around 70 minutes at an even 3:30 pace per kilometer. I ended with a 17.09 for the first 5 km. 21 seconds faster than goal pace … a bit too fast. I ran the 2nd 5km loop in about 17.22 … also a bit too fast. At that point I thought “push this 3rd loop and then fight in the 4th loop where you’ll have 30 seconds extra”. Surprisingly I never really had to fight at any point except for the last 200 meters to make sure I ended under 70 minutes.
Official gun time was 1 hour 10 minutes 0 seconds. Time in my watch (from the start line) was 1 hour 9 minutes 58 seconds. Perfect performance.
I did end up slowing down as the race progressed but I think that it was just because I was running according to how I felt. I put the same % of energy in the 1st 5km as I did in the last, except that in the last the total amount of energy I had was obviously less.
Five days later I still feel a bit tired from the run which means I tried harder than I thought, but still I am pretty sure I had some more gas left in the tank.
Either way a personal best for the distance and a confidence builder for the upcoming half marathon in November and the 5000 meter race this weekend.
Splits:
6.51 - 3.28 - 3.27 - 3.21 - 6.58 - 3.29 - 3.27 - 3.27 - 6.56 - 3.38 - 3.31 - 3.32 - 7.03 - 3.41 - 3.35 - 3.26
*km 1, 2 - 6, 7 - 11, 12 - 16, 17 are together as there is no mark between them.
No comments:
Post a Comment