Running With Jack

On Sunday was the 2nd Annual 10K Stutensee Town Run in Blankenloch. The town of Stutensee is made up of five villages, I live in the village of Friedrichstal which is 5K north of Blankenloch.

I met several members of my running club in Blankenloch about an hour before the race. After collecting our race numbers we stood around chatting for awhile before starting our pre-race routines. It was a mild 11C/52F, sunny and almost no wind as I lined up for the 11:05 a.m. start. From the middle of the mass of 400+ runners for the 10K race I didn’t see any from my running club, so figured the hares were up front and the tortoises behind me. As this was my first 10K race of the year I really didn’t have any particular race goal, although I at least wanted to finish under 50 minutes (my PR is 46:37).

When the starting pistol went off I was trapped for a bit in the middle of a pack of slower runners, but this probably was better anyway as it prevented me from starting too fast. I still managed to finish the first kilometer in 4:52/K (7:50/M pace). We wound our way through the center of the village, and up and down a couple side streets, eventually crossing into the small industrial/shopping area on the edge of town.

I maintained more or less the same pace over the first 5-6K. We headed out of town, up a small incline, and onto an asphalt bike path that goes through the nearby forest.

I didn’t do any speed training before the race, so this pace was starting to get to me by kilometer 6. As we entered the forest I saw a couple of people from my running club several hundred feet in front of me and set my focus on catching them. I started pulling people in as they started slowing and I kept my pace going. I passed the two from my running club around kilometer 8 and continued to concentrate on reeling in runners in front of me. Despite my efforts I slowed about 10 seconds during kilometer 9.

As we entered the edge of the village we had less than a kilometer left, so I fought to ease my pace up again. As we rounded the last corner I saw the church (by the finish line) about 400 meters in front of me. I did my best to churn forward, being further motivated by seeing one of my running club 10 paces ahead of me. I ended up catching and passing him finishing 4 seconds ahead of him with a time of 47:45.

I finished 152/373 overall, 140/290 in the men’s overall and 33/56 in my age class (M45). My 47:45 time averages out to a 4:46/K (7:41/M) pace.

The 10K race winners finished in 33:23 (male) and 36:03 (female).

I was kind of surprised with my time, I didn’t think I had been running so hard. This was about a half-minute faster than my race time last year on the same course. So hey a new course PR, I’ll take it!