YS10k – One Race, Two PB’s

One race, two PB’s!

Race: Yonge Street 10k
Date: April 13, 2014
Result: 34:34 (PB of 4 seconds, 3rd for age M45-49).

My training this winter/spring has been 100% focussed on my next goal marathon: Boston next Monday April 21! As per my training plan, I have done exactly zero interval paced track work. This never ending winter made sure of it – my local track has just recently reappeared from beneath the glacier that lay atop of it since December.

So you must be wondering, exactly what was I thinking racing a 10k just 8 days out from my goal marathon? My big reason was to get in one last tempo session going downhill. Boston is a punishing downhill course and, although it feels easy at the time, Yonge Street can be just as hard on your legs. I resolved to keep the pace reasonable, likely around 36 minutes. With no speed training in almost a year, there was no point going after a PB anyway. If I had just a little more common sense… in the bigger picture, not a wise decision risking months of training.

I met Dan Way of the Black Lungs who also had Boston on his mind. He too was taking it easy. So I joined him in the red start corral along with Bill Bentley. Just before the gun, I lost a few rows when the red corral advanced to fill the space behind the elites. No worries, I would catch up to Dan and Bill on course, and did so before the 2k marker.

By the 5k timing mat, we had formed a nice pack: Dan Way, Bill Bentley, Dayna Pidhoresky (just getting back into elite shape), Stephen Adams, Jon Ruddy, Patrick Kong (with a monster negative split) and yours truly. I admit that it FELT like I was taking it easy which is sometimes the benefit of running in a pack. But a 17:11 (chip) 5k split indicated differently. I was on pace for a PB!

By the time 8k arrived, I will still rolling sub 3:30 splits. A wind from the east was a blessing. This has been some of the kindest conditions I have experienced in my years of racing this course. Usually the last 3k west to Fort York are a battle with wind, lactic acid and shredded quads. Today my legs were barely feeling it. What the heck then, go for a small PB. Dan Way took off but I did not bite. I waited for the final turn off Bathurst and used the grade to send me in. The easiest PB of my life was in the books!

Last year I wrote that the Canada Running Series was stingy with their age prizing (nothing but medals), especially for a race of this size and calibre. This year 1st/2nd/3rd age collected $75/$50/$25 gift cards. Nice! Almost as good as cash!

Hopefully, taking this race was not a mistake. My race effort was 98% according to my Garmin TE = 4.9 (out of 5.0). I held back just 2% (about 30 seconds). Was it enough? We shall see soon enough.

And for my better half…

Right after I finished, I jumped over the barricade and jogged out to the 9k marker to await my wife. She had started at the back of the red corral. She thought it was a bit of a fib getting a red race bib too, not much chance of going under 50 minutes. However, Yonge Street is almost always very close to 2x your best 5k and hers was just over 24 minutes. I knew she could do it!

I got to the 9k marker at 10:42 and searched the crowd as I cheered on the racers. She appeared at 10:45 and off we went together. In short time her first 10k race was in the books, a chip time of 49:34. Naturally being her first race it was a PB, but also 4 minutes faster than her best training run to date. Well done, honey! Quite the finish kick too!