We set off fast in the first mile but I was surprised by the 5:49 split. It honestly felt a lot faster and I would have guessed it to be closer to 5:30. Oh well, still a long way to go. I moved into third place in the second mile and was pleased to see a 5:42 split on my Garmin 405.

I slowed somewhat in the third mile (5:52) and from here on in it was just a question of hanging on to the finish. I found myself running alone – 2 guys ahead and at least 1 runner fairly close behind – and it was tough to keep the pace going at times. Mile 4 was a little slower (5:55) and with a short, steep hill in the fifth mile, I slowed once again to a 5:58 mile. The picture above is me at the foot of the hill after just passing the four mile mark. Note the rare “both-feet-off-the-ground” pose!

In the sixth mile there’s a short out-and-back section where I found out how close the nearest runner was. Billy, if you’re reading this, you looked way too comfortable and I honestly thought you were going to chase me down! I negotiated the final “hill” and tried to kick it in to the finish as fast as possible. Somehow I held off the fast finishing Billy Chorey and held on for a 36:19 finish time (5:51 per mile average) – my second best 10k time and a solid improvement on last years time (37:36).

Today’s 10k was going to be my last race of 2008, but after the awards ceremony I was talked into running the Santa Shuffle 5k next weekend. My current 5k PR is 17:23 (set in 2006) and I’ve decided to go all out and attempt to break it. Watch this space for more details….

Race details:

Photo courtesy TriDuo.com Sports Photography