10k birthday run

It's been a nice relaxing few weeks of holidays for me, most recently a few days in PEI visiting my one and only daughter. She's in her last year of vet school and had a little break in her studies so we were able to visit without interrupting her train of thought.

Speaking of which, I'd been thinking but not able to decide what race to run while here for the weekend. Last year I had done the 5k after just a few weeks back running after my operation. But this year the training has been more or less uninterrupted since the Big Sur marathon and I've been slowly ramping up both the mileage and intensity with a scattering of race 'tests' thrown in for good measure. So, 5k or 10k? I've been unable to choose until last night when my 'coach' suggested that I must be ready for a longer race with all the miles in the bank.

So 10k it was, for the Cox & Palmer Run for PEI Prostate Cancer in downtown Charlottetown, PEI. For some reason I was very hyper before this race and had trouble getting my warmup in with a few cursory strides after a 1-2k jog. Once the race started I took off like a scared cat with the 1st k in 4:08 instead of the desired 4:25 which I'd remembered to write in the palm of my hand. The next k settled in a bit with a 4:17 as I matched strides with the 3rd place lady and we rolled along for the next 5k with occasional switching of positions. At the 5k turnaround in 21:42 I was in 14th place and still hot on the heels of lady with the good pace.
The return 5k leg seemed much harder than the 1st 1/2 and I somehow managed to -ve split it by 9 seconds with a 21:33. There was alot of huffing and puffing, trying to stay on my 4:25 pace and eventually my 'lady-friend' (we did exchange a few words) fell off the pace during a slight downhill stretch on this basically flat course. I then overtook a male runner who offered little resistance and slowly drew in the 2nd overall female during the last 2k. She allowed me to pull up to her shoulder but with about 500m to go, pulled away in her sprint finish. You can see my slight increase of speed in the splits but watching from the sidelines it would not have been very obvious to anyone. Here's the downhill finish for your viewing amusement.



Final time of 43:15 (official times now up and I gained 2 seconds!) was a nice surprise and I'll take it as an unexpected 55th birthday present. I've now earned my beer, ice-cream and cake and look forward to a nice meal tonite with the family.

Cheers and keep on running so you never get old in mind or spirit!