Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city

Going into the race last night I really wanted to run under 28:45 to achieve carding standard.  I felt I could run that fast if everything lined up.  I wasn’t super confident about running 68-69 second laps without the weeks and months of good workouts under my belt that I normally have leading into a track race.  I still thought with my base and aerobic fitness it could happen.

It was about 25C when the race went off, a little too hot for chasing times over 25 laps.  I went through the first lap in 70 seconds and knew right away that 28:45 was not going to happen.  I actually felt pretty crappy throughout the race and I attribute that to running a marathon on May 24th and having my two highest mileage weeks of the year in the past two weeks.  So yeah, no mystery at all why I felt sluggish.  The good part is that I was racing Andrew Smith and Dylan Wykes who are also training for the marathon so they weren’t super fresh either. 

29:20.81 for my first Canadian 10 000m title and my 7th Canadian title (4 X 5000m, 1 XC, 1 marathon).

It was my first outdoor track race in 22 months.  I really want to get back on the track in 2010 so it was good to bridge the gap between 2007 and 2010 with at least one effort around the oval. 

Off to the track again today to cheer on Speed River athletes in the 1500m, steeple, high jump and throwing events.  We have a good chance at doing well in the team scores.

Next race is the Utica Boilermaker 15km in two weeks.