East Side 10k | September 13 | Vancouver

Chip Time - 37:58

Overall - 43 / 1461

45-49 - 3 / 71

M - 35 / 694
Shoes - Brooks Pure Connect 2 

The East Side 10k was my 2nd 10k for the year and I wasn’t expecting any revelations in my finish time. I ran a strong PB of 37:49 on the very flat MEC 10k Fast Blaster in April and this course is much hillier. I just wanted to get in another race before Victoria Marathon to test my fitness and this fell about month before.

I’d been experiencing some hip and hamstring issues but with physio they seemed to be settling down and by race morning I felt about as race ready as I could. I ran the 3k down to the start line to warm-up.  

This was the 2nd year of the race and it’s part of the Canada Running Series that draws a fast crowd. It was great to see many familiar faces including many of the Fraser Street Run Club.

My race plan was to go out hard, hang on tight and hope for the best.

The first km of the race descends off the viaduct so I ended up going out too fast at a 3:33 km (as I expected). By the 2nd kilometer the first hill reigned me in and I got back on pace. I pushed hard the whole way and I knew it was going to hurt. The smarter runners who started a little easier and warmed up started to go by me around 7 - 8km but I was still holding my pace. I started to flag a bit in the final couple kilometers as the course rolled back towards the finish line, and the final push/climb up the viaduct.

Overall I’m really happy with my performance and I managed to get my first age group, placing 3rd in 45-49! I was glad my fitness held and my MEC race wasn’t a fluke. ;) I was 10 seconds shy of my PB and my Garmin actually registered my average pace as slightly quicker than my MEC 10k race.  

Another nice thing about a 10k is that you can finish early enough to meet everyone for a boozy brunch after!

Nearing finish - Photo by Jan 

Alan, Steve & Greg - Photo by Jan

Post-race cheering with 2.0 - Photo by Jan