Midnight run - was it good or not?

Have some troubles to classify the race result, 36:08 min on a hilly course,
finished as 54th or so. Although it rained, the event was great otherwise, samba
and techno vibes at the start, over 20.000 people all in green midnightsloppet
shirts, nice late summer evening temperatures.

There are several extraordinary things with starting in start group 1A, right at thestarting line. There are reserved changing and showering facilities, there’s ample of space at the start and there are those damn fast looking other runners, several even with a darker tan that either motivate you or are frankly intimidating. I couldn’t quite decide on which side I was, my worst enemy seems to be the clock.

The start shot came and all started running - quite fast, too fast in my opinion.
This happens way too often, that the pace is too high on the first km. With paying attention to that were the first two kilometers in 6:45min and the next two in pretty much the same, found a good rythm. It was kind of flat up to that point (see the map). Especially compared to what followed. Found myself behind a continuously slowing running and km 5 was off, a 3:45min. Then the up and downs, left and rights started. The climb up to Sofia kyrkan (Sofia church), almost 50 meters in altitude,  gave the thigh muscles a jolt. On top of the hill Malin Ewerlöf, a former Swedish female top long distance runner overtook me, I got a bit upset and tried to stay behind, which worked downhill, but the next uphill section was it then. She sped up, I fell behind, damn. Further on km 8 was a kind of a U-turn right after a downhill passage, so all the speed was zeroed out and one had to be careful not to slip on the wet street.

All in all, it was a difficult run and it’s difficult to say what the result really means. I’d expect to be on somewhere around 34:45min on a 10k right now, but a 36:08 doesn’t really tell that story in the race result list.

today’s training: recovery run, 19km

Tags: 10k race, Midnattsloppet