Race Result

Racer:	Fabrice Guillaume
Race:	Herndon 10k
Date:	Sunday, June 3, 2007
Location:	Herndon, VA
Race Type:	Run - 10 km
Age Group:	Male 30 - 34
Time:	0:49:00
Overall Place:	18 / 434
Age Group Place:	5 / 39
Comment:	When 10km ends up beeing an 11km race....

Race Report:

This 10km race was supposed to be a fun one.
I had done it a few years ago. It is a little bit hilly but overall, you can run at a pretty good pace.

Well change of story this year.
I was running at a 7:05-7:10 pace with the first female.
This is usually the position I end up finishing, always behind the first female(s) in local races.
Yes I know I am too gallant.... ;)

Well, as we passed mile #5, my watch shows 37mn, I start pushing harder thinking I just have 1.2 mile left and I try to catch up with a few folks ahead of me. But as we make a right turn, we arrive at an intersection.
And there, nothing, no indication. The lead makes a left, the guy behind me yells at him and tells him to go straight. I stop. We look back at a policeman that was directing the traffic. He tells us to go left. So here we are making a left, going uphill (one of these really big hills).
And after several minutes, we realized how off course we all went.
The first runners had already arrive and our group was still running. Many others were following us I believe. I started to lose some stamina as I did not expect to run longer than 43-44mn.
Damn.... That was too bad. I just finished easy with no sprint as I usually do and I crossed the line in 49:00.
My rank of 18th is probably about right as many followed the same path as us. I just think some folks behind us might have arrived before us. Anyway I just feel bad for the folks that were competing for the first positions as there was some mismatch in the numbers with this issue.

As far as I am concerned, it was still a good training for my SPT Tri next week and both my OLYs to come this summer.
Fabrice