We kept in a tight group for the first part. One thing I'm very grateful for is that - despite the small numbers in the 10k clinic - a lot of runners are at my pace or faster, which allows me to push myself.
The route we took was, ironically, one of the first routes we did for our 8k long slow distance! Now we were doing the same distance, but at a "push" pace instead of a "gentle" pace.
There were four of us running and we had some of what I call "natural jostling" along the trails for the first 4k. By natural jostling, I mean that at times some runners would pick up and take the lead and other runners would fall back, then at another time that runner in the back would pick up and run harder, etc. Not competitive jockeying for position, just naturally shuffling around in the pack depending on how you felt.
By the second 4k though, the group had spread out. There were two much faster runners. On another day, I think I could have held my own with them. But the day after 6 hill repeats (6 hill repeats!) I was a little fatigued and it was all I could do to hold the pace. So off they went to pick up the pace at the end, and I just focused on maintaining a strong finish.
But I admit, I did have a little competitiveness in me (I was running with all guys, after all!), so when everyone pulled in at the finish line of 7.7km, I kept going to make it a round 8k.
Interestingly, running with the group and running by feel on tired legs made for some inconsistent km markers, which I only noticed after I finished. The breakdowns by km was as follows:
5:57 / 6:22 / 5:56 / 6:21 / 5:46 / 6:30 / 5:46 / 6:44
Now, to be fair, I never stopped my watch for our 10:1 walk breaks, so that would also affect the speed of each km marker as well, but if you look at it overall, the kms without the walk breaks got consistently faster, while the kms with the walk breaks got consistently slower. Hmmm.
Total time: 49:28min
Total pace: 6:11min/km
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