Cursa Nou Barris - 10k

While at the other side of planet Earth Kilian Jornet has started his run up the Mount Everest for me a more modest challenge, running another 10k two weeks after my first one in a long time and after some pretty good training. Eventhough I prepared well, I arrived later than planned at the start area and also with a suspicious rumble in my stomach. The regular visit to the toilet some 25 minutes before the start showed that indeed my digestive system was quite upset, so I was just hoping for the best today. After a minute of silence in remembrance of a woman, member of the organizing athletics club, who recently passed away, we were shot away. It was already warm and I was sweating in spite of very little warm before the start. The front group stretches out quickly and running is comfortable right away. Because of my stomach I took it easy and inmediately stayed with the 40m pacer, together with some 30 other runners. The first 2k go by in 7m50, and then kilometers 3 to 5 are the hard ones of this race, 2 sharp turns and some streets that are uphill make running at near 4m/k pace a tough thing to do. Still, with some struggle and practicing deep breathing at times as I did in some of the training sessions I managed to arrive at the midway point in 20m10 still in the group of the 40minute pacer, a very cheerful guy that is continuously talking and checking upon us and letting us recover during the 6th kilometer, which is flat. We pass that mark just under 4m/k pace and he anounces that during the next 2k he will up the pace a bit since we go downhill so we will arrive at 8k just under 40minutes schedule. Up to 8k I am following quite ok, but then I very very slowly start to tighten up and really have to push to follow the group that is only some 10 runners now. After the 9k marker, where we pass with 35m55 I know that as long a I don't blow up I can probably finish under forty minutes sprinting a bit at the end. So I let the group go though the gap is never more than 20 meters and when we enter the athletics stadium I push out a controlled but pretty fast sprint to break 40 minutes for the first time since january 2016 finishing in 39m54s. The coming weeks 2 more 10k races and then it is back to the mountains.