TORONTO ZOO RUN
Over the last several months I have improved my PB's significantly in every distance except the 10km.
As the Toronto Zoo Run approached, I thought about switching to a different 10km race that would have a less challenging course, so that I would have a better chance at running a faster time. But in the end, I decided to stick with the Zoo Run because I knew that it would have a strong field of runners and I believe that tough competition with people to pushing you is what brings out your best on race day.
I normally try to negative split 10km races, running the first 5km more relaxed than the second. However, I was drawn into a fast pace at the start and ended up running a 16:05 for the first 5km. I paid for that over the next 2km and finally started to get myself into a more reasonable pace over the last 3km. I am glad that I was reminded of the consequences of not pacing yourself during this race, so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake during STWM this October.
The course had a lot of ups, downs and winding turns. It reminded me a little bit of cross country. Had my goal for the day not been time orientate, I would've actually really enjoyed the course.
I finished in 6th overall in a time of 33:36. It's not anywhere close to the time that I wanted, but given the challenging course I think that the time reflects some good fitness.
I started this cycle off by running a 33:33 at the Toronto Ekiden, it’s a little disappointing to not have been able to improve on that time after 3 months of training. As frustrating and disappointing this is, I have to remind myself that improving my 10km PB isn't what I have been training for and is not my goal this cycle.
This was my last race before STWM. This cycle has been much more training and less racing than last cycle. Not having raced much this cycle I haven't gotten to really demonstrate / prove my fitness to myself. I am trying to trust the process and have faith in my training. I have a few more weeks of work left before STWM and I don’t plan on wasting them.
- ebang
P.S