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2012 4 Races for 4 PBs
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Blessington Lakes 10K 2016
Pre-Race
I was travelling via tram and bus to this one. I wasn’t full of enthusiasm getting up at 7:00am and seeing dark skies and heavy rain outside.
I arrived in wet Blessington at 9:00am with two hours to kill before the race started. Found a barber and had a haircut, found a shop and bought a paper, found a cafe and had a pot of green tea and a tasty scone. All very relaxed and unrushed.
Eventually I make my way from the town down to race central by the bridge. It was instantly clear that numbers were down on previous years, no doubt the bad weather put some people off. The car-park looked only half-full, and the big marquee where registration normally takes place had been replaced with what was probably an 8-man tent. I wait as long as possible before finding a relatively sheltered corner to removing tracksuit and jacket and pin on number.
A shorter warm-up than normal. I jog from the bridge to the 500m to go sign and then back. Soon we’re all called to make our way to the starting area. I join around 30 or 40 others behind the sub 40 placard. I didn’t spot anyone behind the sub 35 placard but 6 runners would break 35 minutes this morning. I’m genuinely nervous. I try to paint this as a TT in my head because my two 10K TTs this year had been successful. I’m still quietly confident that I will PB but at the same time I’m aware that there isn’t a great deal of margin for error and if the legs just don’t feel right then it could be a long morning’s work. No drummers this year.
My race strategy was very clear in my head. I would start conservatively and aim not to travel faster than 3:53 [6:15] until we reached the hill shortly after the 6K mark. I would then call on the 4800m+ of ascent completed in August to help me up the hill. And then I would try get the average pace back down to at least 3:52 [6:13] by the finish line. This means I’d have to run a negative split to get the PB. The hope was that I would still have something in the tank to work with after my cautious start and that that combined with the downhill stretches in K8 and K9, would be enough to see me improve on my 38:54 PB, set here last year.
K01 to K05 in 19:27
I was glad to finally get going. We splash our way over the bridge and veer right onto the Kilbride Road. I’m overtaken quite a bit over the opening half kilometre and a large group of runners, maybe as many as 20, has formed around 10ms ahead of me. I’m watching the Garmin though and I’m travelling too fast already so I focus on easing off. I’m not tempted to catch up with the group, I tell myself that a lot of these will come back to me later in the race.
Despite my best efforts K1 is a carbon copy of last year’s race, 3:44 [6:00]. I remind myself to stick to the plan and I keep easing up. The legs feel good and yes there is a temptation to stay with the faster pace – but no I have a plan and I want to stick to it, I keep easing off. The legs feel good and it’s nice to be covering ground without any huge pain. Lungs are working, maybe a little more than I’d hoped they would be, but all-in-all I feel mostly in control and mostly comfortable. K2 logs at 3:53 [6:15] and I continue to ease up during K3. I don’t check the split at the end of K3, I just check the average pace and shortly into K4 I’m travelling at target average pace of 3:53 [6:15].
The other part of my plan was to make a concentrated effort to run the best racing line. This definitely made a difference. Several times I found myself veering away from the route traveled by most of the other runners. I know I was running certain stretches on the opposite side of the road to what I had done on previous years. This constant plotting of my route also acted as a nice distraction and helped stop me thinking too much about my legs and lungs. While I had been easing off over the early kilometres a guy in a black singlet had eased past me. I reckoned he was travelling close enough to my target pace and so I was also watching him and making sure he didn’t pull too far ahead.
As we approached the 5K mark I was starting to overtake runners. I was feeling relatively ok, I could tell that the people I was overtaking were struggling and had probably started off too fast. I’d see Black-Singlet ease past other runners and about a minute or so later I’d pass the same runners.
My watch is sounding each kilometre split within metres of the road-side kilometre markers so I’m encouraged that I’m keeping a fairly good racing line. I complete 5K in 19:27 and with 3:53 [6:15] showing on the Garmin.
K06 to K10 in 19:10
Along K6 I continue to keep Black-Singlet in sight, at most he moves 20m ahead of me. We both continue to pick of other runners. K6 is slightly downhill and there is a temptation to push already and try bank some time but I’m determined not to deviate from the plan. The effort over K6 stays the same but because of the downhill the average pace does change to 3:52 [6:13]. This is what it is reading as we hit the hill.
I see Black-Singlet overtake 2 runners who have slowed down as soon as they started the climb. I overtake them shortly afterwards. I can tell that I’ve slowed down but certainly not as much as other runners have. Black-Singlet is also climbing well and I hold the gap at around 10ms. The hill is difficult. Part of me was secretly hoping that I’d sprint up it after all my recent hill training, obviously that was never going to happen. I just need to convince myself that without the hill training it would feel even more difficult. I overtake at least one other runner before finally cresting the hill.
I resist the urge to ease up and recover, but I do risk waiting for a minute or so before beginning any sort of push. The downhill starts and now I push a little and try to lengthen my stride. I pass one or two other runners here. Then I glance at the Garmin and see 3:55 [6:18] showing. Ok I have to push some more and have faith that the course profile will continue to help me. No need to panic, for all I know I might have been averaging 3:57 when I crested the hill and so I have to believe I’m heading in the right direction.
The downhill continues. I can see one of the lead ladies up ahead (she’d finish P4). She looks comfortable with a very controlled stride. Black-Singlet has gone past her and is opening up a bit of a gap. I’m not checking splits, later I would see that K6, K7 and K8 were 3:50 [6:10], 4:08 [6:39] and 3:46 [6:04] respectively. I see I’m travelling again at average pace of 3:53 [6:15], don’t ease up.
The start of K9 is probably the fastest part of the course. Around here a guy with green-top and beard overtakes me. I overtake him. He overtakes me again. I’m reluctant to get into a race and I don’t think he’s suggesting that we try work together. The road has evened off again, there's even a little drag here now. We’ve caught up with P4-Lady. I overtake on her left and in overtaking her I also overtake Green-beard. I can hear both of them breathing hard on my shoulder and suddenly I don’t want them to overtake me. I focus instead on Black-Singlet and tell myself to try reduce the gap. I don’t really think I can catch him, but if I can work to close the gap then that should be enough to keep my pursuers at bay.
We’re into the last K. I can hear P4-Lady working hard. I can see that the gap to Black-Singlet is reducing slowly but steadily. I continue to concentrate on running the best racing line. Every second counts. I don’t want to look at the Garmin I feel as though I’m doing enough.
We pass the 500m to go marker, just one more bend and I should see the finish line in the distance. One runner pulls up with about 400ms to go and watches Black-Singlet go past, he then watches me go past before he starts to move again. I’m pushing. The gap to Black-Singlet is down to 10ms but now I can tell he’s pushing as well and I know I don’t have enough road to have even a chance of catching him.
But I don’t care because up ahead I can finally make out the time on the race-clock. It’s reading 38:2X. I know that I have my PB. Instantly I tell myself to enjoy the moment, I keep the pace honest and cross the line with 38:38 showing on the Garmin. Later this would be confirmed as my official chip-time.
:):)
Post Race
I’m thrilled. 10K PBs don’t come around too often, and they are hard fought for when they do. This is a 16 second improvement on my previous best. I’m happy with the PB, but I’m also happy with how I executed my race plan.
Knowing at 5K that if I was to nail a PB, I would have to run a negative split while navigating the back-hill i, I didn’t panic and stuck to the plan. This was especially true when I saw average pace of 3:55 [6:18] showing sometime after K7. I don’t know if the plan was the best plan I could have followed, but it clearly worked. While I was hurting for sure and in the red over the last 1500ms, I still felt that I had a little bit more left in the engine than in previous years. I felt that bit more in control over the closing stages.
Historically I find that my best performances are accompanied with negative splits, so I do think that a conservative approach over the opening stages of races suits me. Mentally I feel more confident running like this. Also I’m convinced that if I hadn’t focused on running the best racing line I would have finished with a 38:4X at best.
Next?
I aim to concentrate some more on this distance, especially as I won’t race another marathon until DCM17. I won’t be hugely happy with chipping a handful of seconds of my PB on each outing (unless I’m racing every second week). A medium term goal now would be to try aim for a 37:XX. Maybe try line up four or five more races between now and the next marathon cycle and see how close to 37:XX I can get. Need to figure out how best to train for this.
My chip time of 38:38 saw me finish P29 of a smaller field than usual, only 265 finishers. As always it’s a strong field in Blessington with around 1 in 6 runners going sub 40.
K01 3:44 [6:01]
K02 3:53 [6:15]
K03 4:01 [6:27]
K04 3:57 [6:21]
K05 3:53 [6:14]
K06 3:50 [6:11]
K07 4:08 [6:40]
K08 3:46 [6:04]
K09 3:39 [5:52]
K10 3:46 [6:03]
Total 38:38 @ 3:52 [6:13]
Garmin Link
P29 of 265 finishers, or P11 in a race of 100.
As always an excellently organized event, getting the core details right: well measured, well marked and a well timed course. The generous goodie-bag and muffins are always a welcome bonus. Looking forward to next September already.0 -
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