Cursa de la Sagrera - 10k

A few seconds closer to the 37 minutes mark, but still not there. On a quiet, sunny, but also very cold sunday morning I set off for another 10k with the start near the 10k of three weeks ago. Today a two-laps course in the neighbourhood of la Sagrera. After the regular warmup we huddled at the start line and all of a sudden someone blows a whistle which seems to be start signal today. So after some yells of suprise we get underway with the regular pushing and running around de park where we also just had done our warm up. Next is a long straight up to the first kilometer (3m25) and we continue slightly uphill. It seems the top-runners today take it easy, since they appear to be very close still. The second kilometer I pass in 7m06 and the third I settle for a good pace helped by the slightly downhill. At the third kilometer mark I am still ahead of schedule but not too much (10m54) and I maintain the same pace passing the 4k mark in 14m44. The last kilometer of the 5k lap we will run two times has a rather steep part uphill after turning upto the last straight onto the halfway mark. I passed the 5k mark in 18m30 exactly on schedule, but not sure if I could maintain pace today. On the first kilometer into the second lap I lost four seconds passing in 22m16 but I pushed the uphill and passed the 7k mark in 25m59, 5 seconds behind schedule, but starting to be fatigued. Eventhough I am not as tired as the races before I still lost time and passed the 8k mark in 29m50 and the ninth in 33m40 knowing that I still had an uphill to go, but at least I had strenght this time to hold on and push through and on the last straigth slighlty downhill I sprinted in good form to once again improve my personal best with a few seconds: 37m25!!!