I think I'm pleased with my run. I've had 52 down as my target for a while. But looking back at the race, I'm sure I could have done a bit better. It was a bit of an odd one.
I was really up for it - having Abel Kirui and Tariku Bekele in the elite tent and warming up with you is pretty cool. I ran without a watch and (perhaps as a result) misjudged my pace a bit at the beginning. My first 5K was 15.36 and I dropped off the back of the 2nd group a bit before that. I was a bit hesitant to drop off them early on as there wasn't a 3rd group and it was a bit windy. In retrospect, I should have kept things a bit slower.
I suffered a bit the 2nd 5K (on my own) and ran it in 16.18. Which meant my 10K split was faster than my 10K PB! I was unaware of my times at any point until the finish line (there were no clocks on the course), so actually I was feeling pretty pissed off with my performance. After 5K my legs were hurting. By 10K it wasn't my legs, but my breathing felt out of sorts - partly a bit stitchy, partly just poor in terms of rhythm.
From there, I was picked up by a couple of guys and tucked in behind them. And though my 3rd 5K split was my slowest, my race actually improved. It was only a little slower, at 16.20. We were catching the guys ahead of us by then and it finally felt better.
At the end, I lost out on the sprint to the guys with me and (more annoyingly), I just missed breaking 52 minutes. I reckon
Afterwards, I continued to be awestruck by he others in the elite area. Kirui in particular was really nice and quite chatty. Tariku was nice too and was excited I'd been to train in Bekoji with Coach.
A good running day. The sort of day that is well worth all the hard sessions.
And the fact that I feel a bit disappointed is actually really encouraging. I'm still improving.
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