Waking up before sunrise (or anywhere near it) is extremely painful for me. So our 5am alarm did not come so friendly this Sunday morning. My cat however meowing loudly beside my bed helped me roll out and get my running shorts on.
It was a very foggy hour and a half drive to Newmarket (shout out my amazing boyfriend who drove me), I slept for some of the ride, but still felt tired and stiff when we arrived to the race site.
I followed my race routine, Naak Bar about an hour before, warmups starts 40 minutes before with leg swings and a jog, followed by dynamics and accelerations. By now I was feeling awake and ready to go. The field and trails at Fairy Lake were getting more and more packed with people as we neared the start time.
I was not sure how this race was going to go. I had initially signed up to try and personal best however did not taper like I had for my last 10k in the spring. In fact, I had a pretty high volume week compared to the weeks prior. Two and a half weeks in Europe (aka lots of hiking but zero runs), then about half a week recovering (low frequency workouts due to fatigue) and then boom its race week. I really wanted to get my legs moving so I put in about 35km into the six days leading up to race day… this included a nice 8k tempo with the Asics Kaizen Collective, some km repeats, and my first ‘long’ run in 3 weeks…
I started my race way too fast. Going over the first K in 4:10 was not according to plan. I tried to settle into pace when another run told me he can pace me for 4:20s, but slowly dropped off him as well… the course was low-key rolling hills but nothing extreme. I focused on my leg speed and keeping pace with the runners in front of me.
During the final 3k I couldn’t tell how close I was so my goal time, but I could see one other female 10k-er that I was slowly reeling in (top 3 overall get awards). I couldn’t remember if I had counted 3 or 4 women ahead of me at the turn around, so I made her my new goal. My legs were beginning to feel the week's worth of running I had under me, but it was mind over body. For a whole three kilometers I very slowly made my way closer to her. We went over the final bridge almost together - which brought us to the corner of the final straight away. I passed her and dug in to create a gap. I am not sure if she knew I was in the 10k race with her (or the 5k that was also going on) as usually people are able to out sprint me, however I was able to cross in front. Exactly 50 seconds slower than my personal best, I came in 5th place - I guess numbers aren’t really my thing, but it sure helped drive the tail end of my race!
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