39:46, 3rd Place — I'll Take It

Week of Oct. 5 ~ 11
43.2km /26.8 mi.

Monday thru Saturday was just preparation leading up to the 10K race on Sunday.

Monday
3:30 - 13k. 7k with JV girls @5:45/k then 6k tempo alone. Wanted to run 4:40-45 pace and ran the two 3k loops at 4:43 and 4:44.
Quads were a bit stiff, but felt ok.
21C/70F, 50%, DP 10
57.7kg

Tuesday
Weights and core at the gym.

Wednesday
7:30pm - club track workout. 12.2k with 4.2k warmup and 1000m x 6.
4:13/3:58/4:02/3:54/59/52 (about 2:40 jog/walk in between)
Pushing just a bit, but basically cruising. Tapering for Sunday.

Thursday
3:30 - 8k. 15min warmup then 800 x 6 with JV girls. From 3:37 down to 3:20, with 90sec rest. Easy, but not slow-easy.

Friday and Saturday
Rest

Sunday
10:00am - 10K race at Nagareyama in Chiba pref.
Very good race, which I enjoyed last year and did again this year. More in fact, because five other club members also ran. It's a good course, quite a lot of turns and about 5 up/downs, but that's ok, it keeps it interesting.
I felt good the whole way - well, not exactly good the last 3k - and finished in 39:46, good for 3rd in the 60s age group, out of 366 men. I was also 3rd last year, but 55 seconds faster. However, I knew I wasn't in as good shape this year, so was happy with both the time and the place. And with the fact that I had no pains or discomfort at all during the race!
Also, since my 5,000 time trial on sept 30 was 19:40, all out, 39:46 was not bad.
Splits were (some approx): 3:58/56/57/58/57/58/4:05/56/4:01 - I kicked the last 500m, but the 500m before that is a gradual uphill.
It rained right up until 30 minutes before the race, but luckily stopped. It was only 18C/64F, so it felt cool, although the humidity was about 100%, so everyone finished drenched in sweat.
There were 3,581 total runners, out of which I was 204th - I think that was the total place out of all men and women (it just says "total").
The winner was about 30:15. He was an independent, ahead of 5 university guys in the low 31s. And the top high school kid was 30:27! The other top five were also low 31s. The top 50-year-old was a bit over 35 and the top 40+ woman was also 35:30! She must have been an ex-corporate runner. The top 60 year old was 38:30 and the top 70 year old was 41:20! Love the quality of races in Japan.

Next race is another 10k on Nov. 23, so will try to improve on today's time.
Long term, I obviously need more stamina. Well, my long runs now are only 14k. The journey continues!