I did my first Tour de Airdrie last year, as my first race ever. It was during a spring blizzard, and the conditions were terrible. I was looking forward to coming back this year and running the 10K as a more seasoned runner.
At the Tour de Airdrie, the available race distances are 5K, 10K and 21K. This year they added chip timing (D-Tag), onto an already well organized race. The race begins on a closed road and then moves onto paved trails for the remainder. The traffic intersections are all manned to allow the runners to cross freely. The water stops had a few problems, as they were using hard plastic cups and filling them as people stopped. After race food was a great spread including hamburgers, granola bars, fruit, water and coffee. The race fee also includes a long sleeve technical shirt and a nice grab bag of freebies (in a reusable cloth bag).
My plan for the race was to do the first mile in about 9:20-9:30, and then try to settle into a 9:10 pace for the remainder of the race. (9:10 is my target pace for the half marathon I’m doing in 6 weeks). Unfortunately I made the novice mistake of going out too fast. I was checking my pace on the Garmin as we ran and was surprised to see low 8’s for pace. I attempted to slow down some, but the first mile split was an 8:44. At that point, I knew I was going to be in trouble later on. Having tossed my planned race out the window, I was now concentrating on my second goal of finishing in less than one hour. My pace bounced around a bit with the hills in various places, but I did manage to finish in 59:21. I measured out the course on mapmyrun afterward, and it appears it is a little over 0.2km long, so I’m even happier to have finished in under an hour.
My mile splits were:
1 – 8:44
2 – 9:32
3 – 9:20 (5K – 28:55)
4 – 9:46
5 – 9:20
6 – 9:36
6.36 – 3:01 (5K – 30:24)
Overall, I’m happy with the race, but I have a few things to think about before my next 10K in 3 weeks.
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