A wholely unexpected 10k - Race Report

Previous 2008 Races: Prior to the past Sunday's 10k I had run 5 races in 2008. Two half marathons in downtown São Paulo where I ran fine along urban courses that didn't offer much in terms of scenic beauty, then a 9km trail race and a local 5k (that was actually 5.6km) that were total disappointments both in their organization (or lack theirof) and/or course planning (I hate course that choose to be boring). Alas...just as I was losing faith in my adopted country's ability to put on an interesting and dynamic race, I have run the two most beautiful and enjoyable races of my life. The Rio Marathon (see below) and a local 10k in my little suburb of São Paulo.

The São José dos Campos 264th Anniversary 10K: I found out about this race from one of those little scraps of paper stuffed in the bottom of the goodie bag, which lead me to a local running website I had never heard of, which has exactly 4 lines of text and a link to register for the race. The race info gave no details of the course or set up other than to mention that a shirt and medal were to be provided despite the fact that the race was Free. A race being run by our socialist municipality with no additional funds from race fees was cause for alarm in my book, especially considering how much I hated the 5(.6)k race I ran with a $25 fee a month prior.

Training: I can describe my training for this race in one easy word...squat. Since the Rio Marathon I have run 3 times, each for less than 40 minutes, all at a speed where a cripple with a hangover could easily have outpaced me.

The course: As mentioned above, the only detail offered prior to the race was that the start would be at the Parque da Cidade (City Park). I have run several times in this beautiful park but was concerned about 2 possibilities:
1) The 10k was going to be in the streets near the park, which meant running through a really bad part of town with a guarantee of at least getting fireworks shot at us and at worst getting actually shot at (drug dealers don't like attention/interruptions).
2) The 10k was going to be several laps around the 1600m running path that is inside the park.

Arriving Sunday Morning: Since I had done fuck-all for training, but still felt obligated to gun for a PR, I went back and forth about not showing up for the race. Since it was free, and the 1500 spots filled up in 2 days, I felt I had to go. I woke the wife and daughter up, dragged them to the car and off we went.

Much to my pleasant surprise: When we got to the park, they had extra parking squared away, a race pavilion was up and running, and best of all, it was clear they had laid out a course all through the park that did not include doing loops of anything.

My first thought was relief, with the 10k now officially a trail run, I was under no pressure to live up the post below about test 4:30 per km as a race pace for my upcoming half-marathon training. This brought a huge smile to my face and I instantly relaxed and started enjoying the pre-race activities and taking pictures with the wee one.

The Start: We all lined up at the start, since it was a free race all the local high school and college track teams turned out, they even drummed up two Kenyans to keep things interesting. My only complaint about the race was that once everyone was in the starting coral, the announcer decided to invite all the women (maybe 200 of the 1500) to the front so they could start first, "for their safety"?!? Considering there were maybe 20 elite women and 180 housewives, the entire rest of the field start booing and laughing as watching 180 women get trampled by 1000 faster age-groupers was no-one's idea of safety. But, the gun sounded and off we went.


The Race: Since I was now in full mental-relaxation state, I was pleased just to let the legs turn-over and enjoy the beautiful trees, lakes and foliage of the park. It just about spring-time here so some flowers were blooming, the temps were 18C/65F and the sun was shining. For the first 3km there were no km markers and I was mostly just trying to get in front of all the slow fatties who gunned it at the start and were pealing off after the first mile+.


The First Marker: at 3km there was the first km marker. I checked my watch and saw 13:27......
Thought One: hey wait a second...that is 4:29 per km!
Thought Two: fugg, now I have to finish this race hard


I keep the leg turnover where it was and went through the half way marker at 22:40. While this was technically 10 secs off my target pace, were were running on trails that included some sandy sections so I had to further admonish myself saying, "hey if this was a flat road you'd be going even faster, so no wussing out now!"


For the rest of the race I used the pick-someone-ahead-and-pass-them method of holding pace. I made one mistake in the last 500m when I thought the finish was right as we approached the pavilion, but alas the organizers had their last laugh (at my doubting them specifically) by wrapping a lap around the pavilion at the end. I sprinted half a click too early and had to dig deep not to die and give away my potential PR right in the last steps.

Well, despite getting passed (and passed badly) by two guys in the last 10 meters who I had passed 300m back, I held on for a Personal Record 45:17. For reference the last 10k race I ran was in Nov 2006 and I ran 52:02, since then I have multiple 10k splits under 50 minutes as part of half-marathons, the best coming in last years Rio Half when I went out in 46:07. Considering this was on trails, I am shocked and really really pleased with the time. I negative split the race in 22:40/22:37.

I thought for a second this might have been good enough for a decent placing in my age group, but when they posted the results it was clear the presence of every track club for miles meant no extra hardware for me. I came in 431st overall and 68th in the 35-39 age group. To give you some idea, the winner was a 29 year old Brazilian who came in at 28:39 and the top 14 runners were in under 30 minutes.

The post race festivities had a moon-walk, other kiddie rides, a classic car show, and a dance or two by the local Brazilian-Japanese dance associations celebrating 100 years of Japanese immigration in Brazil. They were nice enough to pose for a picture.



I start my Rio Half Marathon training tomorrow and am pretty psyched about putting in all the speed work I have been blowing off for the first half of the year.

So, if I ran a 45:17 (essentially exactly 4:30 per km pace) after a 3 week recovery, should I reset my Half-Marathon goal for something even faster?