Times Colonist 10km

Today was the Times Colonist 10km here in Victoria.

The weather co-operated (the rain held off until late morning) and it turned out to be a good day to race... overcast, 9 C and not a lot of wind. Not too sure of the total numbers for the events (10km run, 1.5km Kids race, and a 10km walk) but there were just short of 9000 in the 10km run.

The course itself can be found here. The first K is fairly flat, the 2nd K starts out flat then drops a bit, and the 3rd and 4th K are net downhill (more so on KM 4). KM 5 is uphill, with KM 6 a slight uphill as well. KM 7 is slight downhill, with the remaining three km being fairly flat.

I was in the second row at the start line, off to the left hand side. I wanted to keep the first KM under control and not go out super crazy. A lead group of 10 or so formed at the front, and I settled into the second group, about 12 of us or so. I felt comfortable running in the back of this group, and we were moving along at a good pace (9:30 through 3km). At the bottom of Dallas Rd, we hit the turn around at 4km (12:41) and this is where the race got a bit ugly for me. I lost contact with my group of 10 or so, and was stuck running in no-man's land. I ended up running the remaining 6km basically solo, with a couple guys running through me in the last KM.

Looking back, I most likely went out through 5km a bit quicker than I would have liked to (16:10) but I wanted to hang in with the group and get pulled along. The official results have me listed at 34:00.....but I'm gonna go with the 33:59 that I had on my watch! It's a PB, so can't complain.

Splits:

3:14
6:22 (3:08)
9:30 (3:08)
12:41 (3:11)
16:10 (3:29)
19:49 (3:39)
23:28 (3:39)
26:58 (3:30)
30:33 (3:35)
33:59 (3:26)


Hopefully I'll be able to find a picture or two from the race.