Sydney:10

Saturday May 1, 2010 (Race-10km)
I ran this race two years ago finishing in 48:18 and a stress fracture. So I approached today’s race with some concerns. The course was pretty much the same as the previous NSW Road Championship one but the start and finish have been moved. I had no expectations for a finishing time but on my recent form I thought I should finish in less than 52min. It was overcast and cool at the start with little wind – perfect running conditions. Getting a bit carried away I started out to fast and by the third kilometre started to wonder how I was going to manage the rest – thoughts of stopping and/or pulling out at 5km crossed my mind. The clouds darkened, it started to rain and I was not in a very nice place. So I did what I always do when in this position hooked onto the back of the person running just in front of me and just focused on staying with them for the middle part of the race and then seeing what happened. It worked, I got to 8km feeling better than I was at 3km so I let go of my “pacer” and got to the finish in 48:43. I finished in the back of the pack - 75th percentile - of the 663 starters. Lesson learnt – the first 3 km were 15 sec/km quicker than my average pace at the finish. This will be my goal at next months race – to run a more evenly paced 10km.