My first road race of the year was Sunday, April 19, 2015. Despite the blustery chill in the air for the early spring run, the Yonge St 10km remains one of my favourite races for many reasons: it signifies the unofficial start of running season in the city, it allows pedestrians to take over one of the busiest streets in an urban jungle, and its a fast downhill course which sets runners up to aim for personal bests. This year there were 6009 participants registered for the event. A fine crowd to run in, and any chill felt when starting out was soon lost in the sea of bodies and the quickness of pace the course sets you up for right from the start.
Last year I did the course in a time of 46:57. This year my goal was to run a sub-45min 10km.
The beginning of this race is easy, as it starts on a lovely downhill slope just north of Yonge & Eglinton, and because of that I had a nice 5km split time of 21:45 as I ran past Yonge & Bloor. However it doesn't stay that way the entire race and levels off after 6km. I started to fatigue at the same point in the race as I did last year, right at the 7km mark where the course turns west onto Richmond St, but I didn't let it get to me this year like it did last year. I definitely believe this is where all the work I did on the mental aspect of my running helped me out. Sure, I was suffering as I ran across the Bathurst St bridge at 9km but I was bolstered by the sight of the finish line which came into view at the 9.5km point and I gave it all I had left then, more terrified that I wasn't going to make my sub-45min goal time than anything else!!
I cut it closer than I'd like, but I’m very happy to report that I made my sub-45min goal time in the end. Pacing an average of 4:27min/km, I shaved 2min 24sec time off last years run, crossing the finish line in 44:33. This moved me up solidly in the rankings, placing in the top 5% for both my gender and age groups. (http://www.sportstats.ca/)
2014 Race Stats
Official time - 46m:57s
Overall place - 914/5698 (top 16%)
Gender place - 185/3139 (top 5.8%)
Age category place - 29/440 (top 6.5%)
2015 Race Stats
Official time - 44m:33s
Overall place - 595/6009 (top 9.8%)
Gender place - 102/3339 (top 3.1%)
Age category place - 22/495 (top 4.4%)
I feel like I’m off to a great start this racing season. My next race is May 3, where I’ll be running my first Half-Marathon (21.1km) at the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon event. I’m taking a couple days off this week, and treating myself to a massage and burger, but will be sure to do a few taper runs over the next couple weeks to ensure I’m back in fine running form again for my next challenge.
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