10K

It was good, it followed a by-now familiar pattern whereby I spent the first two miles having moderate road rage and just cursing the dishonesty of people's self-placement in the corral (I thought I was really starting as far forward as I could possibly justify, near the front of the 8:00 mile section, only really I was overtaking about five hundred very slow people with great irritation in the first twenty minutes, it is irksome and bad for the soul, I should be a more relaxed person--only it is after all a race!).

The dispiriting thing is that you just look out over the sea of (rather slow-moving) humanity unfolding in ribbons ahead of you and do not understand why you did not instead have a nice long run rather earlier in the morning instead of getting wrapped up in these wretched institutionalized races (the website says 4840 finishers, and it really is only a two-lane-type situation, in theory you are meant to fit into the very narrow rec lane which is about the width of someone's driveway in the suburbs only it is simply not possible).

From mile 2.5 or so I was finally able to run pretty hard, quite enjoyable; that 10K is a tough distance, though, and the forced unevennness of pacing is not ideal...

So: 51:33/8:18 pace. Very respectable, I was aiming for 52:00 really, I am pleased with my time.

(But I am tempted to find a fast, flat and less crowded one to do in the late spring so that I can have a real benchmark/time-trial-type time to work off, this is certainly not it!)

The device (which I did not remember to turn off immediately at the finish) says pace average 8:20, HR average 164. (Max pace 6:35, that sounds about right for a good downhill clip--it does seem like I'm getting faster...)

Splits with HR average (terrain fairly uneven, some miles significantly hillier than others so pacing in last four miles more even based on effort than numbers suggest):

8:51 (152)
8:22 (162)
8:01 (164)
8:24 (171)
8:13 (170)
7:54 (171)
last bit with HR 176/lap end pace 7:19 (interesting, I actually felt that I must have slowed down, my legs felt ridiculously strong still but I was tipping over during the last mile into that mild lactate-threshold queasiness which I do not enjoy...)

(Training partner S. made his sub-50:00 goal--49:29, 7:58 pace!)

(I jogged over to warm up, this is definitely the way to do it, especially given the start at 102nd St. on the east side which is relatively inaccessible by public transportation from where I live--1.5 mi, 10:20 pace, HR 143.)

A nice sociable breakfast afterwards with training partner L., Nico and another friend of L.'s, who all did the race also; this was good...