Game Plan (Noosa 10k race)

I was very worried going into my first 10k race of the year. You see, after last Saturday’s horrific rain run I developed a little niggle in my left knee. By Friday, this little niggle was in full-blown pain. I should have skipped Friday’s run but I went anyway. Big mistake! I could barely limp through the 6.4km loop at a 6.29km/h loop.

Saturday I didn’t run, but I did lots of walking in Noosa and my knee was quite sore still. So I came up with a Game Plan.

You see, this is the first 10k of the year, and for me it is just a prelim to the Gold Coast Half. So why blow it all now? My Game Plan was as follows: keep the pace easy and steady and see how my knee goes. Walk if necessary.

It seems smart, right? No sense doing unnecessary damage! But, the problem is this: I didn’t make a contingency Game Plan for “if my knee feels great”. Which it did. The whole way! So I decided to follow some logic. My pb in the 10k is 54.18. So heading around the course at a cruisy 5.35 pace I thought “awesome! I can SO keep this up and get a new pb! Easy.” Afterall, 5.35 x 10k = 53 min and a half minutes, right?

Does anyone else see this simple mathematical error? I did...at the 8k mark! What I thought was logic turned out to be illogic. 5.30 x 10k = 55min!!! Silly girl. *Siiiigh*. No pb for me today. No way could I make up the time.

Still, for a gal who hasn’t gotten below 58min in the 10k in the last three years, a 55min time isn’t a shabby start to the year. Plus, having felt so good throughout the run going at (essentially) just below my goal half marathon race pace, the season is looking encouraging!

Distance: 10km (or 10.01km)

Total time: 55.10 min

Avg pace: 5.30min/km

Elevation: 10m

In the last 600m, I had my customary sprint finish. Unfortunately, as I passed a girl who had been pacing the same as me throughout the race, my instincts at training kicked in. You see, in the sessions if I’m sprinting past someone who is lagging, I’ll encourage them to push alongside me. Usually this ends in said person finishing before me, but whatever. It’s just training.

So when I passed this girl with 400m to go, I called out “come on!” She looked at me, startled, then started to sprint with me...and then past me. Oops! Fortunately for me, she was clearly not a sprint finisher. She stayed with me in the end, but I finished 2sec ahead of her. Heh heh. Next time, I will button my lips and silently cackle as I pass people at the finish line rather than egging them into joining me.

Split times:

1k: 5.37

2k: 5.30

3k: 5.33

4k: 5.34

5k: 5.29

6k: 5.26

7k: 5.31

8k: 5.32

9k: 5.31

10k: 5.14 (sprint pace: 3.51)

And the rest of my running squad did fantastic! So many personal bests, and two people on the medal stand. It was beautiful weather, a great course, and a great crowd. I will definitely look to hit up this course next year!

ps - this is me chilling out at the markets the day before the race. It's not always about race day but the journey leading up to it.