10k Scotland Run results in another PR

As the announcer said, 'the Scots managed to bring their weather with them' and he wasn't joking.
Distance: 6.2 Miles, 10.0 Kilometers
Date/Time: April 11, 2009, 10:00 am
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 48 degrees, 93% humidity, rain.

My hands felt frozen in the warm-up and in the corral waiting for the start of the race. There was really nothing I could do to get warm - and the first mile's heart rate shows it - it was a real bear to get started - and I had to slow myself down about the 3/4 mile point not to speed through. I was very happy to have heart rate feedback, as I slowed dramatically (in the first mile and again on the big hill in Mile 4 to keep from blowing out).

Splits:
Mile 1: 7:13
Mile 2: 7:09
Mile 3: 7:09
Mile 4: 7:40 (huge hill)
Mile 5: 7:10 (regained focus)
Mile 6: 7:23 (lost focus? Or just couldn't keep the pace...)
Rest: 1:32

Last Name	First Name	Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Gender Place	Age Place
PARKS	JOSHUA	M36	1503	1041	917	191

Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG Time	AG Gender Place	AG %
45:17	7:18	44:03	1102	60.9 %

Overall I'm overjoyed. I beat my goal time of 46 minutes by a mile. I almost made my long ago stretch goal of completing a 10k in 45 minutes (but that will have to wait until another time).

Looking back, there is only really one thing that I'm not happy with - my 'kick' or lack thereof. I tend to go out too fast and then hold on until the end. This year and last year I ran the last 0.2 miles in the same amount of time (90 seconds in 08 and 91 seconds this year). I'd like finish stronger. Still taking 30 seconds per mile off my time feels pretty great. And too think that it felt like moving last time!

Comparison of my per mile times in 2008 (pink) and 2009 (blue) - you can see that the slow first mile cost me last year and I never really recovered. Still the 40 second per mile faster pace through the first few miles increased that lead (hard to see here).

Heart Rate (upper) and Altitude (lower) '08 vs. '09

Here you can see how hard I had to work over the first mile this year to get started. Nice to see though that I was moving more quickly and spending less effort to do it - that's text book better training. And to think that I'm 'only' running a couple of days per week. Let's see how this Summer's training goes.

Over all a very good result. I'm happy, especially that I didn't let the rain interfere with getting the work done.