San Carlos 10k

Just finished this morning's 10k race. The goal was to do it in 42 minutes (6:45 pace). I was feeling pretty good at the start after a rest day yesterday and a couple miles warmup before the race.

As usual I started too quick, with the first quarter mile at 6:18 pace, settled down as we got to the first hill, which was not big, just about 70' climb over half mile but enough to stretch out the field. Got over that hill at 6:54 pace and then kept up the effort as we went down 80' over the next mile. By mile 2 it was the only flat bit of the day and I was running nicely at 6:45, but I'd covered the first 2 miles a little fast at 6:36.

Mile 3 and 4 went uphill, only about 80', but with a gradual increase in grade. By the time I reached the top at mile 4 I was running about 7:05, even though my average pace for all 4 miles was still about right at 6:48. I was definitely paying once again for that fast hill start.

Mile 5 was a little down then the steepest uphill part. Averaged 7:12 for that mile and was definitely feeling the pain at this point.

Decided that it was time to kick and try to catch the guy ahead as we went into the final downhill. Did a quarter at 6:40, then sped up to 6:18 as I caught up with him. He didn't want me passing and we increased the pace over the next quarter mile and got down to 6 minute pace. Finished out mile 6 fast which was an average of 6:22.

By now I was completely spent, the guy had one final kick and I couldn't keep up on the final little uphill stretch to the line. I let him go and focused on not puking, managed to run the last .3 (course was a little long) at 6:35 pace but at the end I had nothing left.

Crossed the line at 42:51, so missed my goal by 51 seconds. I think the course was a little long (Garmin came in at 6.30) and had a lot of corners (where Garmin usually measures short, not long). Official pace was 6:54, Garmin pace was 6:47.

Finished in 7th place (which was surprisingly only 5th in my age group at 40-49)

Overall I am disappointed that I missed the goal but happy with the effort. It was hillier than I expected and I'm pretty sure I could have gone sub 42 on a flat, accurate course. I still need to be more disciplined about pacing in these 10ks as there is little room for error when you run so close to your limit.

Now it's 4 weeks to the next 10k, which is flat. I'd like to run that one at a 6:30 pace for a time around 40:30, so I need to get some real solid training in over the next 4 weeks if that's going to happen.