Very mild and sunny today, the trail was in fine shape, though it looks like the forecast will result in a few puddles come Friday if it stays accurate.
I have been having some digestion issues lately — gas from both ends (bleah) and a rumbly stomach/intestinal tract. I almost didn’t run today because of this but went out anyway, drawn by the siren song of a nice day.
My start was pretty good, just over 5 minutes and the first 2 km were very close time-wise. The middle stretch I began to feel rather blah and my calves also started to ache a bit, bringing my overall time down. At around the 8k mark a new jogger showed up and came onto the trail just ahead of me. His pace set him maybe 100 meters ahead of me and although I couldn’t catch him, I managed to keep up with the pace he fell into it. He started pulling a little ahead after a few minutes and I resigned myself to not catching up. Then something happened. He may have started to slow but I definitely turned it up a notch, tapping into the fresh reserves brought about by the runner’s high. My last 2 km have only a 2-second spread, which is pretty good for a finish. Even better, I managed to actually close the gap and was about to pass the other runner when he suddenly departed the trail and headed up the hill and out of the park.
Results:
Total distance: 10.02 km (previous: 10.02 km)
Average time/km: 5:26/km (previous: 5:23/km)
Best time/km: 5:02/km (previous: 5:02/km)
The list of things that irritate me will be posted below soon™.