Well, this race was kind of a mixed bag.
Tom and I were planning to trade off 1/4 miles leading and drafting. I think that it went really well. It felt good to be behind him on my off quarters. I am not sure if it is the actual drafting or the emotional support, or how that prevented me from going out too fast, but I think it was a great help. We stuck together for the first 4 miles right on pace or a couple of seconds faster for the mile splits, but somewhere in the fourth mile and then the fifth my watch went crazy on me and showed me a pace much slower than we were going. I told Tom, "I think we have slown down," but he assured me we were on pace for another 6:45 (this was toward the end of the fourth mile). He led the first quarter of the 5th mile, and I let him go. There was a slight uphill at that point, and I was confused by my watch but most of all I was not tough enough to hold on!!!!!!! Dang it, I shouldn't have lost touch with him. Well, my watch was still screwy for the rest of the race so I couldn't gauge my pace well, but I caught a guy in the fifth mile and I think another one in the sixth. I should have caught the last guy between Tom and I, but I just didn't have the drive to finish the race well.
On the flip side, this is my best 10K in years. I did a 43:24 on July 24th, and my fitness has come a long way since then. On the 24th race, I slowed down in mile 3, and slowed further to a 7:28 in mile 4 and never went below 7 minute pace again. On this race I stayed on pace through mile 4, and slowed to 7 minute -7:10 pace for mile 5 and 6 (I don't have reliable splits but extrapolating from the beginning miles and my ending time). When I finished the race, my distance said 6.00 miles, and Tom's watch caught 6.19 miles so there was something up with my watch. My time on my watch was right on though with the runnercard results. My overall pace for the race was between 6:45 and 6:50, so I was close to my overall goal for the race, and I won the race which was also a bonus.
Since this was to be mostly a training run, a tempo run, I suppose I should be happy. The race puts me just under 3:10 for the St. George so that's in line with my expectations. I am still not sure what to target for St. George. The SF 1/2 marathon this Saturday should help since it is a flat hard course. | 