Times Colonist 10k(30:41), wk7

Another week, another 10k. Not gonna lie here, I am glad I am done racing till Ottawa, it has been fun and i've learned a fair bit, and more or less accomplished what I hoped I would. I have canceled my plans to run the Vancouver Marathon as a workout mainly because I applied for an elite entry and did not even get so much as a response other than the bounce-back confirmation of application reception email. I have dealt with the Vancouver Marathon people in the past and should have expected such treatment, they are well known for poor management and poor treatment of elite athletes. Even if they didn't think I deserved a comp entry a response of any kind would have been nice. Anyhow, thats the way it is. Onto the race today:

I have always wanted to do the Times Colonist 10k but never managed to get over to the Island to do it. This year Bob Reid was kind enough to invite me over and have the race put me up in the Empress Hotel which was great, and in general I had a good experience at the race and will certainly come back. The race itself started out reasonably slow so I took to the front and led for the first 2.5, we went through in I think 3:12, 6:15, 9:15, with a few of us exchanging the lead of a group of nearly a dozen of us. I believe we went through 5k in 15:24 and I was concerned I wouldn't break 31mins today. Even though I went out in the lead, I didn't really feel good today, not rested like last week at the Sun run. So the race really felt like a hard training run. Not unlike the sun run a fell off the back a little bit a few times but fought back into the group and pushed the pace at times, so again I put in a really good 'race' effort and was very pleased. Coming into about 8.5k there were still 7-9 of us together but at that point things started to separate a bit and at 9k I found myself having a hard time in 7th but decided to hang on just behind Spencer Morrison and see what I could muster in the finishing straight. With about, I don't know-maybe 200m to go I went for it and managed to pick off Spencer and Steve Boyd, then had one last gear with about 75m to go and got past David Jackson again by one second. I have never in my life had a good finishing kick but it was the second week in a row I managed one, I don't know what to make of it but i'll take it. I really have no complaints about the race other than I didn't feel all that fresh, which is no surprise with all the races I have done. As for the breathing problems I have had lately, I can't say I noticed them during the race but have been really stuffed up and wheeze when I breathe out fast, so whether that effected my race performance I don't know, perhaps not making each breath more laborious but perhaps generating fatigue over time, which would explain the effects in my long run on thursday. But i'm not going to worry about it. 4 weeks to go!!!
Breakdown:
LR - 19 miles @ 5:44.8/mi
Race - 6.125mi @ 4:56.2/mi
Volume - 98mi