Race report: Zuidwolde 5k XC

I was feeling a bit iffy on Friday, and it was the first really bad
weather day after more than two weeks of uninterrupted sunshine, but I
still couldn't resist giving my legs an airing. So I went out while
it was pouring and did a few easy laps in the park, finishing off with
relaxed strides. The evening was weight training, with just a few
ba-only lunges and donkey calf raises for the legs.

Come race day, the weather had cleared up somewhat. I decided to do a
5-10min warmup at about race pace, with a short pickup at the end. My
calves were still not 100%, but nothing too bad.

The field was a bit sparser than last year, where the top man had done
18min something for the 5k. But that was OK, I don't like crowds :)
The place was Zuidwolde - almost 2 hours away from where I live - so
people there were excited that a greek would come all the way there
just for a run. In fact, I was really tired of running in Amsterdam's
forest and there aren't that many 5k events around (everybody seems to
be running the marathon these days). This felt like the right time to
do a 5k, so I had planned it way in advance.

The route was I guess a typical XC route for Holland. There was a
tiny hill (maybe 10-15m high?) with forest, criss-crossed with paths
going up and down. Most of the paths were wide enough for 2 people,
sometimes for even 3-4. I started at the back, thinking I'd use the
qpeople in front to pace myself. I would stick behind somebody, then
drop them as soon as I was feeling sufficiently confident. In the 3rd
km I was behind one guy going slightly slower than me on
the downs and ups but I restrained myself and only passed him at the
4th kilometer, which I did in 4:09. Here are the splits:
4:30, 4:25, 4:45, 4:37, 4:09... total time 22:25 (race time 22:28).
I came in 6/15... so at least above the middle of the pack. First was
18:56.

Full results here:

http://www.uitslagen.nl/uitslag?id=2008051700743

I guess my next target pace would be 4:20, as I felt quite fresh at
the end. I am not sure that in this particular race I could've
pushed the first few km more, but I could've definitely started
picking up the pace a bit earlier in the last km and/or done a faster
sprint for the last 400m. On the other hand, this was consistent with
the times in my long intervals (1-2k) last month of 4:36/km - and
somewhat better than my winter ~23min time trials.