18th Pentecost Run in Krofdorf-Gleiberg

New race, new luck ;-) Actually the weekend was pretty exhausting as my wife and I drove to a wedding on Saturday morning and just returned back yesterday afternoon. Nevertheless, the traditional run on Pentecost must be attended for three reasons:
1. It's a local race just 20min by car
2. It's a race of the Rono Cup
3. MOST IMPORTANT: It's the fastest course in our area here

So, don't think about the heavy rain just think about race tactics. Which is quite easy for a 10k race: "Just go out there and RUN" ;-) The course itself has a turning point at km 5 with same way to and back. The first 5k have a moderate rise and, eventually, the last 5k have a moderate descent which seems to be perfect for running (as a lot of runners have set their PB here).

The Race started at 9:30 AM and was accompanied by slight but steady rain. After the first km the lead pack was nearly already away, strong runners participated (10 runners finished with a time less than 34min!), I clocked with a 3:15, much too fast, off course but beeing aggressive sometimes pays off. My further splits were 3:39, 3:41, 3:50, 3:46, i.e. 18:12 for the first 5k resulting in a 29sec improvement compared to last year, further on the splits were as follows: 3:14, 3:20, 3:24, 3:26, and a final 3:25 -> In total a 35:01 (meaning 58sec gained compared to 2003), actually I could have done below 35:00, but my finish is not as good as I liked to have it, lacking a bit of focus. I was right behind another runner for the last 4k, I could have overtaken him on the last 500m but I didn't. I am uncertain if it was due to lack of courage or some sort of "honesty" (not to overtake him because he had the lead for so long time)... I don't know... Anyway, I enjoyed it and I really love to run such short distances in a pretty fast way (compared to my Marathon jogging ;-)).

Stats:
Distance: 10k
Overall: 14/350
Age-group: 3/45
Time: 35:01

Impressions... (C)2004 by the race organizer