Lake Joondalup 10km (State Road Racing Championship)

Found this heavy going from about 3-4km onwards. Although I have largely managed to avoid the illness in the rest of the family, I started getting a bit of crap on my chest on Friday. It was pretty dry though so I was hoping it would be OK but from about 3-4km I could feel it constricting my breathing which was quite heavy and raspy.

Felt OK in the warmup and for the first couple of kms although I was having to work a bit harder than I thought I would to maintain 3:30-3:32/km pace. My legs (calves) did not appreciate either the downhills or the uphills that were at the far end of the course. Definitely got some issues with my left lower leg. Through some foam rolling, I have managed to loosen up the tightmess that was pulling the tendon in my ankle but by the time we finished today, my left calf was so rock hard, it felt like it was going to burst out of my skin. Wore compression socks for the rest of Sunday and also Monday but might look to get a massage sometime this week.

Sugar was pacing me although I was unable to maintain the pace we had agreed on and he considerately stuck with me thoroughout. Dave Bryant ran a well paced race, passing me around 3.5km and opening up a bit of gap which increased from 5km onwards. 36:30 for him which was a PB.

Relatively pleased with my last km in 3:29 given how I was feeling as I made up some ground and passed two runners, one of whom has been close to me in quite a few races over the past couple of years. Little bit disappointed I didn’t push on harder once I got past them as that would have got me under 37:00 instead of 37 flat. No idea where I came overall, Marc See won in 31 something.

Even though I was well outside what I wanted to run, this is still my 2nd fastest 10km so it isn’t a complete disaster, given that I was feeling a bit off. Still planning to run Run for Gold this coming Sunday so hopefully I will throw off this cough by the middle of the week and have something better to report next time.

Splits:
3:29
3:35
3:45
3:35
3:39
3:49
3:56
3:57
3:42
3:29
10km - 37:00