Race Report – Cunningham Seawall 9.5k

Today’s running tip: Play Rock Band, especially drums, the night before a race as it strengthens calf muscles.

Yesterday I laced up the racing flats again for round 2 of 3 of my fall running season at the James Cunningham Seawall Race.

I took a much more controlled approach to the start than I did at the Turkey Trot. Looking back at my heart rate data, it took until the 2 km mark to hit 170 bpm (as opposed to 1 km at the Turkey Trot). As usual, most people went out like gang busters off the start but by about that 2 km mark I started picking them off one by one.

I spent a good majority of the race (2 km to 6 km) simply focusing on the runner ahead of me, reeling them in, passing them, and then refocusing on the next one. It was a great mental space to be in, never looking at my heart rate to check effort and only occasionally checking my pace at the km markers.

That is until the runner I passed at about the 6 km mark stuck with me. I could hear his footsteps behind me and did my best to drop him but by the 7 km mark I was starting to tire. At 8 km I had slowed enough that he passed me, along with another runner who had caught us and I simply did everything I could do to hang on behind them.

At the 9 km mark I was done mentally, having dropped well behind the two who had passed me but a quick kick in the butt from Alan and Martina who stopped by on their run got me moving well again for a couple hundred metres. Then the I saw the clock at the finish line and saw that it was still possible to get under 36 minutes so pushed it right to the end with 35:59 on the clock and my watch at the finish.

Officially I finished 31st in a time of 36:01 (equivalent to a 37:50 10 km). While it was a different course from last year, that’s still nearly 3 minutes faster and, taking the 10 km time, over 1.5 minutes faster than my 10 km PB.

KM Splits

I went into the race hoping to break 37 minutes and managed to almost break the 36 minute mark (officially) so I’m pretty pleased with the way the race went. I think a little more work in the next couple of weeks will let me hold the 3:45/km pace over the entire 10 km and mean a sub 37:30 at the Fall Classic. Here’s hoping.

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