Young girl beats old man

stats of the week: run 29km, gym 3hrs

The 3rd race in 3 weeks - that's the first excuse for not having run 10K sub 45 mins what was my declared target. Also conditions were not really perfect - heavy rain and strong winds on a cold Friday evening. But the main reason was that I started too fast!

Shortly after setting off I noticed a trio of club runners who paced a little girl looking very young. Later I learnt she is already 13. I got so excited looking at her easy and perfect running style that I followed the temptation to keep their pace and the first 2km were great fun.

Soon I had to admit that she was too fast for me and after 3km I lost the group. After 5km I was so exhausted that I could hardly imagine to finish this race. On the second half I was overtaken by at least 20 runners. All hope was gone and my only thought was to reach the finish line.

The little girl finished 3 mins ahead of me, my time was 45:49, still not too bad as the average of 4:35 min/K is just the same as two weeks before. Alas - there is little hope now that I'll be able to run the New Year's Eve race of 15K in a 4:30 pace.