Holly shit!
It's been a week now that I ran in the Zagreb Night 10K and I had a blast! The weather forecast for the night of the race was rainy the entire time but I was still hoping for a somewhat dry race.
I don't really mind running in the rain (at least nobody can see you cry ;) ) but since I knew that at least my wife was going to be around I hoped that it won't be to rainy. Since the Ironman 70.3 race in Pula where my family and friends were forced to spend most of the time indoor because of the cold and rain I was hoping that this time they won't have to freeze their asses of while I am chasing an imaginary bunny.
As (mis)fortune wanted it, the race started out with rain but still a few of them showed up and wished me good luck. People tell me I am crazy for doing all this "crazy running" but these guys spend hours outside just to see me for 5-ish seconds each lap (which can be anything from 10 minutes to 3 hours long) and to fire me up to keep pushing.
As usual I totally failed at picking my starting position. I am not a guy who likes to push people around just to gain a second or two. This usually costs me a minute or two at the start. It bugs me a lot after a race but not that much that I might push people around more for my benefit. In the end it's not a championship race and I am not in for the prize money.
My first kilometer started out a little slow. It was a little under 5.00 min/km but that was to be expected as I was in the middle of the pack. The next few kilometers I tried to get into a rhythm and I settled my pace at 4.16 min/km +- 2 seconds.
It was absolutely awesome to run over a few of our main squares and most famous tourist sights. There were people along the road with all kinds of whistles, horns and other noise making devices which kept my mind away from the pain.
There were two fan points set up on opposite sites of the course and I really enjoyed soaking up the energy from this people. It takes a lot of good will and kindness to stand in the rain with a hand written banner and wait for your runner to pass.
At kilometer 5 I started to feel my legs hurt. Did I overpace? Did I (again) fell victim to the excitement of such a race and tried to keep up with stronger runners? I wasn't really sure what to think at that point but I knew I had a little more to finish the 2nd lap and then there were only 3 more kilometers and the race was over (you have to break a race up in chunks or you are screwed). I passed my fans for a second time and got all the encouragement in the world (this time they even didn't say that my pace sucked - which is an added bonus) so I was ready to tackle the last third of the race.
I was half expecting my pace to drop since I was really feeling like crap. To my amazement I saw it was still around 4.16 min/km!!! My legs hurt but once I made the last turn I knew that there were only 1000 meters in front of me and that's a distance I could cover half dead (at least that's what I was telling myself - again, lying to yourself really helps a lot!).
I entered the finishing area and with a lot of people on the sides it got a little disorienting but I managed to cross the finish line with a time of 43 minutes and 38 seconds with a pace of 4:21 min/km (the first lap kind of ruined my sub 4:20 min/km goal but who cares).
In the end I finished 106th out of 1913 who finished the race which is awesome and also in 30th place out of 166 in my age-group which is really good :)
I enjoyed the race and really felt the energy of the crowed through the entire race but most of all I enjoyed the support of my wife and friends who spent their Saturday evening in the rain waiting for a nutcase to run around the city center.
I love to finish all these race reports with them because one of the reasons I do the things that I do is because it helps bringing people together. They all could have chosen a different location for this point in time for them but they decided to get wet feet, endure the cold and listen to my war stories once I cross the finish line.
Thank you all :)
p.s. This race marked the start of my third season as a triathlete. I have started running and bike riding again and my swim training will start tomorrow. Which races I'll pick for next season is still unknown but I am sure there will be some races to test my skills a little more :)