Denouement

5.5k warm up.  I got diagnosed with tonsillitis on Saturday, but only feel under the weather, so I am doing this race!  Also the weather was unseasonally cool (about 15C), so it was a good race day.  I ran this last year in 37:30.  This year I wanted to break 37 minutes, but not kill myself doing it, since my marathon was 8.5 days out.

My friendly neighborhood nemesis Yiu Kit Ching was not here, but Ali Chow was.  She is not really a threat though since she is more of a one-pace marathon specialist, and has never broken 38 on a road 10k.  The race is out 2k, back to the start, then out 3k, then back to the start so I will record the splits and compare to the prior year (I had them in my head and so was comparing in the race).

	This year	Last year
2k	7:26	7:31	I started out really mellow, Ali right by me, about 30 guys ahead of us, and I was using to draft as there was headwind, I started to surge to frog hop to guys ahead after 750m
2nd 2k	7:20	7:30	I thought there would be tailwind, and the splits say it is so, but it felt like headwind, after the turn around I had to surge to catch a guy pack to draft but the lead guy slowed and I had to take the lead to make pace, have a pic on my FB of me leading the guys at around 3k
3rd 2k	7:31	7:32	The headwind probably a factor for this and the next k
7th k	3:47	3:46
8th k	3:38	3:50	I felt like the 8th k killed my chances of a sub 37:30 last year so I wanted to run this strong, and was able to :D
last 2k	7:07	7:20	About 3:37, then 3:30 for the last 2k
	36:52	37:30

About 3k cool down. I was happy that no men passed me in this race after about 750m.  That was cool.  Ready for Boston!   

AM: 15 min elliptical, stretching, then 4 miles on the TM in 31 minutes,

PM: 1.5 hour massage, core workout, then stretching.

Detoxing off of Coke Zero in preparation for Boston in one week! 

Last night my son woke me up in the middle of the night because his throat hurt really badly.  So I had a nice 2 hour sleepless period.  So in the morning I got up at the normal time and got the two younger chickies off to school, then did 15 min elliptical and some stretching, then took my son to the doctor, then took a 1.5 hour nap, then did some work around the house, then got a 45 min oil massage--so nice.  Then off to the kids school to volunteer for the athletics club.  Finally got to my workout at 6:20pm.

Met Ali at HKSI.  I thought I might be able to meet the new track coach, but he was not there.  He is a sprint specialist anyway, so meeting him is just a nicety.  Anyway, Ali and I warmed up about 3k, then we did 4 x 1600m at goal marathon pace, launching on the 7 minutes.  I felt pretty bad during the warm up.  It was very humid, though not hot (87-92% humidity) and my throat felt constricted.  I felt ok during the day (just half awake), but felt worse in the warm up than when warming up for the 10k.  I don't thing my antibiotics are helping, it must be viral.  I felt much better after starting the workout, and envisioned the four miles as the last miles of the marathon.  Miles were 6:14, 6:10, 6:12, 6:08, Ali went on to do 2 more.  She was scheduled to do a North Korean marathon this week, but HK pulled the trip due to safety concerns.  2k cool down.  Felt good afterward, but now I am fading.  Day 2 w/o coke zero and I am feeling it!