Notes
The event went well for me. Maybe better than I was expecting. Although my fitness level has been up where I’d like to see it, I just wasn’t sure what to expect from a 10km cross country race held in held in December with a temperature of 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
It went well. My goal was a bit uncertain. I knew that I just wanted to feel like I was competitive in the race. The field was full of fast runners, and as with most cross-country courses, a person really doesn’t know what to expect as courses are all a bit different.
The race turned out to be very competitive. I went out fast, but conservative, and was well back in the field by the time we had reached the first mile. My split was 5:59, so I was happy to have controlled the effort and was on my way for my original race plan, which was to try to run at 6-minute miles for the distance. The second mile split was at 6:04 which worked out well for me as it really did the job of waking me up to get racing.
The third mile split was reached in 5:57, and I was slowly moving through the field. The fourth mile went by in 6:00 and then I really put an effort into putting on the pressure which led to a 5:57 fifth mile. The final full mile of the race was hit in 5:56, which only led the final 2/10th of a mile to go. However, the race turned out to be 6.4 miles rather than the advertised 6.2 (10km) distance. I went through 10KM at roughly 37:08 and finished the race with a time of 38:20.
Statistical information for the performance had me at 141st in the overall Master’s 10km+ (6.4 mile) event, out of 248 finishers. Age-Graded I was 85th in the same field. In my age group (50-54) I finished in 30th position out of 72 finishers.
My split for the first 3 miles was 18:00, and for the second 3 miles was 17:53.
All in all, I was pleased with the performance, with an eye on improvement for next year as I enter a new age group.