New 10K PB – Breaking the 37 Minute Barrier
Posted on Sep 21, 2011 under Racing | No CommentLast Sunday I broke my old PB (which was set only 4 weeks earlier) for the 10K.
Back in August I ran I 38:35 at a local race. It wasn’t all that much better then a previous PB I had, and I knew I had a faster time in me. So when I was preparing the week before for this past race I was conscious of wanting to break 38 minutes.
Based on my training times and efforts I knew I should be able to keep a pace of 3:48 or better which was what I had to do to break 38 minutes.
SIDENOTE: My initial goal at the beginning of this season was to break 37 minutes for 10K but I had been struggling to make that happen this season and adjusted to to a sub 38 10K this season and figured I’d go for sub 37 or 36 next season.
A concern I had about this past race was that I tweaked my Hamstring pretty badly during an easy training run the on the Thursday before. Can’t say exactly what caused it but I was in some pain on Thursday afternoon and into Friday. So even whether I would race was a bit unsure.
Thankfully by Saturday afternoon I was feeling 100% better, and while there was still a little ache in my hamstring and glute I was gonna give it my best go.
Race Time
I got near the front of the pack as I wanted to be able to go out and not worry about having to make my way through too many people after the starting horn sounded.
I went out rather quickly, it never ceases to amaze me that when I glance at my Garmin watch during those first 300-500 M of a race I seem to be able to run much faster without too much effort then at any other point in training.
Quickly four of us took out in a lead pack. I led for a very brief moment of maybe 500-750M and then was passed by the other 3 in the group. They began to take some ground on me, but I figured if I was to run a great time I had to dig deep and stick with them.
At this point we were still keeping a sub 3:40 per KM pace, which was a bit startling since in the past that had caused me to burn out half way through.
I picked it up and by about the 3 KM mark, thanks to a nice downhill I was able to build some speed on, had taken the lead, although not by much.
Myself and another racer had broken away from the pack and were making some ground. At the 5K turn around I was still in the lead with the second place runner right on my tail not 5 meters behind me.
After the turn-around there was a long incline. I dug deep and hammered up it hoping to put some space between myself and the second place runner. He held on strong though. During all of this time as my watch had still been beeping out some crazy splits.
KM 4 3:38
KM 5 3:33
KM 6 3:45 (the up-hill)
At the crest of the large incline after the turn around point, and about 6.5 K into the race the runner behind me passed me and put some space between us. I didn’t choose to follow him, of course in retrospect I should have, but I figured I was running a strong race based on the splits thus far and I had wanted to run this race for a PB not for winning.
The first place runner didn’t continue to put space between us after he got about 30-40 M’s out in front. That hill after the turnaround I think took a lot out of us both.
I continued along at a half decent pace for KM’s 7, 8 and 9 and then to my surprise in the last KM the 3rd place runner who was quite a bit behind us at the turn around came out of no where. He took over my position and powered on to the finish.
At that point I was feeling pretty exhausted and decided it best just to cruise in. I knew I had broken my 38 Min goal, however I hadn’t spent anytime figuring out just by how much until I crossed the finish line and looked at my watch.
Finishing time was: 36:15
That blew me away, and the chip time confirmed it.
So while I may not have won, I was more then happy with my finishing time. That’s a new personal best by more then 2 minutes.
I have one more 10K race left this season in a little less then 3 weeks. We’re going on vacation for 10 days Starting this Saturday so I’m going to try and not put much pressure on myself to compete with that time, but I’m definitely going to have sub 37 on the mind for that race as well.
slipts