A local 10k in Shatin. Knew there would likely be little competition, but thought it'd be a good workout. Turned out to be 99% humidity and 17 or 18C, so not really raining but misting, with the bike trail wet. I wanted to go out at 3:45/k pace and drop in the second half.. 4k warm up, including good stretching and strides. Then we were off. I took the female lead after 200m, but there were probably 20 guys ahead. Watch showed 3:59 for the first k, not good, because effort felt right. I had bad sleep for two nights in a row--running out of Ambien kind of forces a detox if you know what I mean. But the bottle did last for 5.5 months here in HK, so not too bad. I won't try to get more, though, just better to fall asleep the old fashioned way. Not sure if it was the sleep or just generally not feeling the eye of the tiger, but the pace was off today. Averaged 3:54 for the next 4k, passed many and was in eighth overall, so 19:36 for the first 5k. In the 6th k I closed in on #7 and in the 7th k I passed to get into 7th place. I couldn't quite close in on black shirt ahead of me. 3:53 ave for 6-8k. I wanted to get down to 3:45 pace for the last 2k and basically did, with a 7:31 last 2k split. I measured 10.1k, so the course might have been slightly long. From 4-6k we were on a promenade with slick sidewalks (Ma On Shan), and the 180 and the turns were definitely slower than ideal, but that doesn't explain the 38:47. 6k cool down. The event was very local, meaning no english instructions or announcements. Also only earned $100hkd so its the first HK race where I lost money (entry fee less than winnings). Oh well, the bananas, free water, entertainment and the workout was worth it.
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