Races in October

Three races this month: An aquathlon, a road race and a track race.
Two failures and one success.
Very bad weather in all three.
(the aquathlon report should be in the shonan series report)

Takashimadaira 20 km (10/18)

I took part in Takashimadaira once again (3rd time). It was my first long race of the year and preparation to Saitama half which I will run on the 23rd of November. The goal was to run sub 72 minutes. I thought it would be easy, as last year I ran 70 minutes flat running at 95% ... but I guess am not back in shape yet.
Every single lap was slower than the previous one. I ended running km 17-19 at marathon pace to reserve for a pointless kick in the last kilometer. Final official time was 72.44 - net time was probably a lot faster as I began. In my watch I recorded a time of 72.36. Either way not a good race.
Weather did not help a lot with temperatures rising over 20 C before the start.
Splits
7.03 - 3.28 - 3.33 - 3.27 > 17.33
7.21 - 3.35 - 3.35 - 3.30 > 35.36
7.23 - 3.37 - 3.41 - 3.41 > 54.00
7.28 - 3.52 - 3.47 - 3.29 > 1.12.37


Shinjuku 10,000 (10/24)

Tired from the 20km less than a week ago and a hard training 4 days previous to the race I really did not expect much here. It was my first official 10,000. Other times have just been pace runs. My best time so far been of 33.58 .
The weather once again was my enemy.
It began raining 10 minutes before the start, temperatures went down and the wind began to blow. I decided to take it easy and that did work in my favor.
34.20.20 Negative splits: 17.14 - 17.06 Pretty even pace except for the final lap kick.
High hopes for races to come.
Splits
3.23 - 3.27 - 3.26 - 3.27 - 3.28
3.27 - 3.29 - 3.26 - 3.24 - 3.16
Average: 3.25.94