1ª Corrida de Belém

Name of the Competition: 1ª Corrida de Belém

Length: 10Km
Date: 19th May 2013
Minimum Objectives: - 42m
Personal Challenge: - 40m
Personal Record for this Length: 39m 42s

Average Heart Beats per Minute: 184

Maximum Heart Beats per Minute: 193

Today I took another attempt at breaking my 10Km personal record, set in 2010, though I didn't really believe it to be possible since I'm still regaining my form after the last injury. Since it was the first edition of this race, I must confess I also feared that the organisation would mess up somehow. Thankfully everything went great.

On my way there I was checking my heart beats and I never saw them go below 60bpms, which was not great. Not that worrying either: I knew it would be more important for me to able to reach very high bpms: it is no coincidence that I have reached 218 during my best ever 10Km race.

The athletes going for the shorter race had a delayed departure, which made it much easier to speed up in the beginning. The support area was ok and all runners were awarded a (technical) T-Shirt and a medal. Since it had, comparing to other similar races, a cheap registration I recommend everyone to try it next year. It was a fairly easy track, with barely any slopes along the whole way.

Thanks to the well organised departure I was able to start quite well. My heart beats jumped immediately to 174, usual numbers for this type of running. The first kilometer featured the highest slope in the entire race, though, which obviously slowed me down. I finished the first kilometer in 4:19:08 (13.85Km/h average), which meant I was 20 seconds short. I blamed it on the inicial acceleration and the slope, and tried to hasten up the pace a bit.

Indeed, three kilometers later my watch marked 16:02:03 so I had won back 18 precious seconds with my 15.38Km/h average over this length. Still a long way though. At this point I was quite cheerful and confident, since I was feeling the wind slowing me down which meant that, after turning, it would be a nice helping hand for the final effort.

I reached the 5th Kilometer mark with my clock marking 20:00:01, only 1 hundreth of a second behind schedule! Things were looking pretty great by now.

Around the 7th Kilometer we turned 180º for the final lap, and it signalled the end of my hopes as well. Somehow I had managed to misjudge the wind's direction, since now it really was blowing strongly against us. I tried to keep up the pace, but at the 9th Kilometer my time was 36:29:01 which, given the conditions, meant that my record would hold yet again. The minimum objectives seemed secured though.

Due to lack of motivation I confess I faltered a little bit, until Foster the People came to the rescue with "Don't Stop". I ended up crossing the finishing line in a sprint at around 40:35:00 (still waiting for official time).

All in all it was a good race, and I've gained some confidence for Corrida do Oriente, the next 10Km competition, coming in just 2 weeks. Hopefull with better wind conditions I'll finally be able to beat 39:42:00.

Filipe Baptista de Morais