Trofeu Cidade de São Paulo 10k

50:03 A new PR! because this was my first 10k ever! (Funny because I've run nearly all race distances between 5k-26.2)

36th woman overall out of 737, top 4.8%

5th in my AG out of 120, top 4%

818th overall out of 4165, top 19%

Three words to describe this race: Hot, Humid, Hills

We met L's dad at our hotel and walked to the start of the race outside Parque Ibirapuera. This was run entirely on the freeways outside the park.


It was a nice sunny day to celebrate São Paulo's 459th birthday!


L and his dad ran together.

We started near the front because this race was sold out at over 10,000 people between the 10k and 6.3k. It was crazy!


It was a little crowded for the first K and then it spread out a bit.


I woke up feeling sick to my stomach- probably because I induce pre race jitters on myself. Not sure why I get so worked up over these things.

My goal was to have fun, and try to break 50 minutes. I knew the 75 degree heat and 70% humidity wouldn't be on my side, since I've been used to temps 40+ degrees cooler in Chicago.


Usual pre race shoe shot :)

First mile was 7:40 and I felt pretty good- hot but good. Then the huge hill started. It was steep and seemed to go on for over half a mile. At this point I started feeling really sick. I just slowed down and kept telling myself to just get to the top (while muttering curse words to myself) The down hill after was nice, but then we had to go back up. Mile 2, 8:20.


I saw the leaders while i was at the 2k mark- they were already at the 5k!

I think I got to the 5k in under 25 minutes.

The first half was rough. I haven't sweat like that in a long time. It was hard to breathe and just freaking way too hot for me! :)

The second half was flatter, but I kept breathing heavy and cursing. A few people told me (I assume because they spoke Portuguese and I can kinda understand) that "we were almost done, hang in there" which was really nice. I kept chugging along and kept scanning the crowd for L and his dad.


I actually saw them two times on the out and back parts. I didn't run with my iPod, so looking for them kept my mind busy. And they were easy to spot in their red and green shirts :)

I was really happy to be finished and almost started to hurl when I crossed the finish. (The guy behind me beat me to it) The second half had some smaller hills and more uneven splits ranging from 7:40-8:20 again for me.


Because the officials weren't barking at people to move from the finish, I hung around for L and his dad to finish!

Observations

Good:
-Easy access to the start from our hotel.

-Relatively smooth start.

-Aid stations with cold water in an easy to open cup.

-Awesome medal!


-Chip timing, race photos etx

-Kindness of the runners. A guy who spoke to me during the 2nd half with words of encouragement came up to me after the finish and said congrats and gave me a sweaty hug.


The less than ideal:
-Plastic cups for the water. Slippery.

-Heat, hills and humidity ;)

Other observations


Photo from today's race from runners world.

-Most of the participants wore their lime green race shirts.

-The field for the 10k was 17% women, 83% men. not surprising since I didn't see many women around me during the race.

-Nice swag- the fila shirt is soft and drifit, we also got a blue tech hat. And one we turned our chip back in, they gave us our medal and a bag of snacks.


The top 2 men and women finishers- who were sponsored by FILA. The winning male time was 29:17, and the woman won in 34:46

Housekeeping

Took a salt tab and a jet blackberry gu pre race.

Ran with my passion fruit flavored Gatorade the whole time. Best decision ever.

Lulu yellow top, lulu shorts, Saucony A5 shoes. Ankle and ITB were not issues.

Still feel sick and hot/sunburned after a long nap. Think I finally burned all those calories from the mortadella sandwich.

I think I'm going to have to try another 10k soon...

- xaar